Return to home2007 Jan 3,
Mike Perham (14), a British teenager, became the youngest person to
sail solo across the Atlantic Ocean, reaching the Caribbean island
of Antigua after a six-week voyage. Perham was trailed by his father
in another boat.
(AP, 1/3/07)

2007 Jan 9 Britainís Royal Mail
released a set of six stamps depicting the iconic Beatles' album
covers.
(Reuters, 12/28/06)

2007 Jan 10, In England 2 RAF
training helicopters collided in mid-air in Shropshire, with some
reports claiming that one person was killed and three injured.
(AFP, 1/10/07)

2007 Jan 11, The Bank of
England (BoE) raised British interest rates by a quarter of a point
to 5.25 percent to fight inflation.
(AP, 1/11/07)

2007 Jan 12, Severe gales and
heavy rains powered by an Atlantic storm left at least one person
dead and eight missing, sunk two fishing trawlers and disrupted
travel across Britain and Ireland.
(AP, 1/12/07)

2007 Jan 15, A British
prosecutor told a jury that 6 men plotted to kill London subway and
bus passengers with bombs made from hydrogen peroxide and flour on
July 21, 2005, two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 commuters
in the city. The devices failed to explode.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 15, It was reported
that a team at the British institute that cloned Dolly the sheep
have made a genetically engineered chicken that produces cancer
drugs in its eggs. The proteins they chose were miR24, a monoclonal
antibody with potential for treating melanoma, and human interferon
b-1a, an immune system protein from a family of proteins that
attacks tumors and viruses.
(Reuters, 1/15/07)

2007 Jan 17, Britainís Guardian
reported that senior executives at defense manufacturer BAE Systems
have been named as suspects in a corruption inquiry being conducted
by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into contracts with South Africa.
(AFP, 1/17/07)

2007 Jan 19, British foreign
secretary Margaret Beckett admitted that her government was aware of
a secret CIA prison network before Pres. Bush acknowledged its
existence in September.
(AP, 1/20/07)

2007 Jan 20, The London Times
said police had tracked down the man, who was introduced to former
Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko and his associates as "Vladislav",
using details that the ex-agent recounted on his deathbed.
(AP, 1/20/07)

2007 Jan 21, Oil leaked from
the Napoli, stricken freighter beached on the Englandís southwest
coast, Two containers of hazardous chemicals fell into the sea as
salvage crews struggled to operate.
(AFP, 1/21/07)

2007 Jan 23, British police
arrested five men under anti-terror laws, in dawn raids reportedly
linked to the escape of a terror suspect and the distribution of
Islamist propaganda.
(AP, 1/23/07)
2007 Jan 23, British police
arrested five men under anti-terror laws, in dawn raids reportedly
linked to the escape of a terror suspect and the distribution of
Islamist propaganda.
(AP, 1/23/07)

2007 Jan 26, British and
American television stations reported that British police have
concluded that a former Russian spy was poisoned by a lethal dose of
radioactive Polonium-210 added to his tea at a London hotel.
(AP, 1/26/07)
2007 Jan 26, Andy Coulson
resigned as editor of the News of the World over a phone hacking
affair. Clive Goodman, the royal correspondent for the News of the
World tabloid, was arrested along with private investigator Glenn
Mulcaire for intercepting the voicemail messages of Britainís royal
family.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Coulson)(http://tinyurl.com/pwm6sur)

2007 Jan 27, Andrei Lugovoi,
the man reported by British media to be a suspect in the murder of a
former Russian agent in London hit out at "lies, provocation and
government propaganda," denying any role in the radiation poisoning
death of Alexander Litvinenko.
(AP, 1/27/07)

2007 Jan 30, Britain shut down
Northern Ireland's legislature and planned a new election to
determine the fate of power-sharing, the central goal of the peace
accord.
(AP, 1/30/07)
2007 Jan 30, Manchester was
chosen as the site for Britain's first Las Vegas-style supercasino.
(AP, 1/30/07)

2007 Jan 31, British
counterterrorism police arrested 9 men in an alleged kidnapping
plot. The plan reportedly involved torturing and beheading a British
Muslim soldier and broadcasting the killing on the Internet. Parviz
Kahn (b.1970), British born Muslim fanatic, was among those
arrested. In 2008 he was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to
serve at least 14 years in jail.
(AP,
1/31/07)(www.globaljihad.net/view_page.asp?id=697)(Econ, 5/25/13,
p.57)
2007 Jan 31, Tata Steel said
its $11.3 billion offer to acquire European steel maker Corus
(formerly British Steel) is strategic to its global ambitions, even
as the winning bid raised concerns that the deal's high cost could
undermine the combined company's financial health.
(AP, 1/31/07)(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.C3)

2007 Jan, In eastern England a
16-year-old girl lost nearly all her fingers after she put her hands
in a bucket of plaster of Paris during an art lesson. She was
attempting to make a sculpture of her own hands. In 2009 Giles
School, in Boston, was ordered to pay 19,000 pounds ($30,140) for
breaching health and safety regulations and also failing to report
the incident to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
(Reuters, 10/12/09)

2007 Feb 1, Defense Secretary
Des Browne said Britain will increase its military presence in
southern Afghanistan by about 800 troops to 5,800 this summer.
(AP, 2/1/07)

2007 Feb 3, Britain scrambled
to contain its first outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain
of bird flu in domestic poultry after the virus was found at a farm
run by Europe's biggest turkey producer. Some 2,500 turkeys had died
since Feb 1 at the Bernard Matthews farm near Lowestoft in eastern
England. Over 160,000 were culled over the next few days.
(AP, 2/3/07)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.59)

2007 Feb 5, Britain pressed
ahead with a cull of 160,000 turkeys after the nation's first
outbreak of a deadly strain of bird flu in farmed poultry as Russia
and Japan banned British poultry imports.
(Reuters, 2/5/07)

2007 Feb 7, Six people were
hurt by a third letter bomb in three days aimed at British
motoring-related organizations and police are investigating if the
attacks are part of a coordinated campaign.
(Reuters, 2/7/07)

2007 Feb 9, In London airline
tycoon Richard Branson announced a $25 million prize for the first
person to come up with a way of scrubbing greenhouse gases out of
the atmosphere in the battle to beat global warming.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 9, British government
scientists said the avian flu strain that hit the farm in Suffolk
owned by poultry giant Bernard Matthews appeared to be identical to
that found in Hungary, where Matthews owns local company Saga Foods.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 9, British bus and
train operator FirstGroup PLC said it agreed to buy US-based bus
company Laidlaw International Inc. in a 1.9 billion pound ($2.7
billion) deal.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 9, Ian Richardson
(b.1934), Scottish-born film and TV actor, died in London. He played
the evil Francis Urquhart in 3 TV miniseries ďHouse of Cards"
(1990), ďTo Play the King" (1993) and ďThe final Cut" (1995).
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.B7)

2007 Feb 15, President Paul
Kagame said in an interview published in The Times that Rwanda wants
to join the Commonwealth, the 53-nation grouping of former British
colonies, in what will be seen as a rebuke to France.
(AFP, 2/15/07)

2007 Feb 18, British PM Tony
Blair announced plans to overhaul gun laws after three teenage boys
were shot dead in south London this month, prompting a national
debate about guns and gangs among youths.
(AP, 2/18/07)

2007 Feb 19, British police
arrested a man near Cambridge in connection with a series of letter
bombs sent to offices linked to traffic enforcement. On Feb 22 Miles
Cooper (22), a primary school caretaker, was charged with 12
offences under the Explosive Substances Act and the Offences Against
the Person Act.
(AP, 2/19/07)(AFP, 2/23/07)

2007 Feb 21, Food retailer
Asda, owned by US group Wal-Mart, said it would create 8,000 jobs
and build 18 new supermarkets across Britain this year.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 21, PM Tony Blair said
Britain will withdraw around 1,600 troops from Iraq in the coming
months and aims to further cut its 7,100-strong contingent by late
summer if Iraqi forces can secure the country's south.
(AP, 2/21/07)

2007 Feb 22, Female tennis
stars hailed an announcement that women would receive the same prize
money as men at this year's Wimbledon tennis championships after
years of dogged campaigning.
(AFP, 2/22/07)

2007 Feb 23, In northern
England one commuter died and five were seriously injured when the
high-speed London to Glasgow Virgin train, packed with 120
passengers and staff, derailed in the county of Cumbria.
(AP, 2/24/07)

2007 Feb 24, Thousands of
anti-war protesters converged on London, calling on PM Tony Blair to
withdraw all of Britain's troops from Iraq and voicing fears over a
potential conflict with Iran.
(AP, 2/24/07)

2007 Feb 26, In London Abu
Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric and suspected key Al-Qaeda figure,
lost an appeal against deportation from Britain to Jordan.
(AP, 2/26/07)

2007 Feb 28, The Church of
England's assembly affirmed existing teaching that homosexuality is
no bar to full participation in the church but avoided the fractious
debate within the Anglican Communion about accepting gay sexual
relationships.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Lord Charles Forte
(b.1908), Italian-born British businessman, died. He had parlayed a
London soda shop in 1934 into one of the worldís largest hospitality
businesses. He was knighted in 1970 and in 1982 PM Margaret Thatcher
made him Baron of Ripley. He authored an autobiography in 1986.
(WSJ, 3/3/07, p.A4)

2007 Mar 1, Britain confirmed
it will withdraw its more than 600 remaining troops from Bosnia as
concerns about security in the Balkan state ease.
(AP, 3/1/07)

2007 Mar 2, The British
Broadcasting Corp. said that it has signed a deal with Google Inc.'s
YouTube that will allow the popular Web site to show excerpts of the
broadcaster's news and entertainment programs.
(AP, 3/2/07)

2007 Mar 3, Britain sent a
crisis team to Ethiopia in an effort to obtain the release of five
British embassy workers or their relatives who were kidnapped along
with a group of French while on a trip to remote northeastern
Ethiopia. An Ethiopian administrator accused Eritrean forces of
kidnapping a group of five Europeans and 13 Ethiopians in a remote
part of Ethiopia, and taking them to a military camp near the
Eritrean border. Several Ethiopians who were kidnapped along with
five Britons touring the African country's remote northeast were
found.
(AP, 3/3/07)(Reuters, 3/3/07)(AP, 3/4/07)

2007 Mar 7, Britainís House of
Commons voted to introduce elections to the House of Lords.
(SFC, 3/8/07, p.A3)

2007 Mar 8, The British
government bowed to pressure to improve conditions for Nepalese
Gurkha soldiers who have served in the British armed forces for two
centuries, granting them full pensions and other rights. Gurkhas
began serving as part of the Indian army in British-run India in
1815. Since Indian independence in 1947, Gurkha pensions have been
linked to those who served in the Indian army, not those in the
British army.
(AFP, 3/8/07)
2007 Mar 8, British actor John
Inman (71), best known for his role as camp shop assistant Mr
Humphries in the long-running BBC comedy "Are You Being Served?"
died.
(Reuters, 3/8/07)

2007 Mar 12, In Gaza four
masked gunmen abducted Alan Johnston, a BBC journalist. He was later
reported to be held by the Dughmush clan.
(AP, 3/13/07)(WSJ, 1/3/07, p.A14)

2007 Mar 13, The British
government published its climate-change bill.
(Econ, 3/17/07, p.60)

2007 Mar 16, People all over
Britain donned red noses and took part in fundraising events for the
11th annual Red Nose Day, with the money going to help disadvantaged
people in Africa and Britain. The event, launched in 1985, is
organized every two years by Comic Relief.
(AFP, 3/16/07)

2007 Mar 18, Eurostar trains
ran on a normal schedule following a trackside fire the fire, near
the London terminus at Waterloo station, that brought chaos to the
service over the previous two days.
(AFP, 3/18/07)

2007 Mar 20, The British
government said schools have the right to ban students from wearing
Muslim veils if teachers believe the garments affect safety or
pupils' learning. Britain ordered its military to stop using cluster
bombs that lack self-destruct mechanisms in a decision intended to
prevent the weapons, used as recently as the beginning of the Iraq
war, from harming civilians.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, An explosion
aboard the HMS Tireless, a nuclear-powered Royal Navy submarine
under an Arctic ice cap, killed two British sailors and injured a
crewmember.
(AP, 3/21/07)

2007 Mar 21, Britain's
leader-in-waiting Gordon Brown unexpectedly cut income tax along
with business taxes in his 11th and probably final budget before he
takes over from British PM Tony Blair as expected.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 21, PM Tony Blair said
Britain would urge the EU to impose tougher sanctions on Zimbabwe,
describing the situation there as "appalling, disgraceful and
utterly tragic."
(AFP, 3/21/07)

2007 Mar 22, Gordon Brown,
Britainís Chancellor of the Exchequer, said the government will
grant 35 billion pounds to Northern Ireland over the next four
years.
(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 22, Counter-terrorist
police in England arrested three men in connection with the 2005
suicide attacks on the London transit system. London police said a
man held hostage for nine days following a dispute between drugs
gangs has been freed in Liverpool in what was the longest-running
kidnap they have ever dealt with.
(AFP, 3/22/07)(AP, 3/22/08)

2007 Mar 23, Iranian naval
vessels seized 15 British sailors and marines who had boarded a
merchant ship in Iraqi waters of the Persian Gulf as part of efforts
to protect the Iraqi coastline and its oil terminals; they were held
for 13 days.
(AP, 3/23/07)(AP, 3/23/08)

2007 Mar 25, British PM Tony
Blair said that the 15 British sailors and marines captured by Iran
as they searched for smugglers off the Iraqi coast were not in
Iranian waters and warned that Britain viewed their fate as a
"fundamental" issue.
(AP, 3/25/07)

2007 Mar 26, In Britain Taylor
Woodrow and George Wimpey agreed upon a $9.8 billion merger to
create the countryís largest house builder.
(AP, 3/26/07)(Econ, 3/31/07, p.65)
2007 Mar 26, Lindsay Ann Hawker
(22), a British language teacher, was found naked in a sand-filled
bathtub at an apartment outside Tokyo. She had been beaten and then
suffocated. Police hunted for the prime suspect, a 28-year-old
Japanese male. On Nov 10, 2009, Tatsuya Ichihashi was arrested as
the only suspect in the murder, after he had spent over two years on
the run and altered his appearance with plastic surgery. In 2011
Ichihashi admitted the killing but said it was accidental. On July
21 Ichihashi was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/29/07)(AFP, 12/2/09)(AFP, 7/4/11)(AFP,
7/21/11)

2007 Mar 27, British lawmakers
unanimously passed an emergency bill to preserve the Northern
Ireland Assembly and permit its Protestant and Catholic leaders to
forge a historic administration by a new May 8 deadline.
(AP, 3/27/07)

2007 Mar 28, Briton Richard
Rogers (73), the famed architect of a series of iconic buildings all
over the world, was announced winner of the 2007 Pritzker
Architecture Prize.
(AFP, 3/29/07)
2007 Mar 28, Retired Gurkha
soldiers staged a mass protest in London over Britain's refusal to
give them full pensions and other rights.
(AP, 3/28/07)

2007 Mar 29, Britainís PM Tony
Blair announced the creation of a new national security department
to fight terrorism, as part of a radical overhaul of the
225-year-old Home Office.
(AP, 3/29/07)(Econ, 3/31/07, p.66)
2007 Mar 29, Britain took its
escalating crisis with Iran over 15 captured sailors to the UN
Security Council, as Tehran said it would not release the only woman
among the detainees.
(AP, 3/29/07)

2007 Mar 30, Man Group PLC, the
world's largest publicly traded hedge fund company, said it plans to
split off its brokerage business, making it an independent company
through an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.
(AP, 3/30/07)
2007 Mar 30, One of the 15
British service members held captive in Iran appeared on the
government's Arabic-language TV and said he apologized "deeply" for
entering Iranian waters without permission.
(AP, 3/30/07)

2007 Mar, Britain's anti-fraud
agency told a private OECD meeting in Paris that they had evidence
that BAE paid more than 70 million pounds ($113 million) to a Saudi
prince with influence over arms deal contracts. A US diplomatic
cable regarding this was only made public in 2011.
(AP, 3/13/11)

2007 Apr 1, In Iran about 200
students threw rocks and firecrackers at the British Embassy,
calling for the expulsion of the country's ambassador because of the
standoff over Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines.
Britain examined options for new dialogue with Tehran over the
seized crew of 15 sailors and marines, as a poll suggested most
Britons back the government's goal of resolving the standoff through
diplomacy.
(AP, 4/1/07)

2007 Apr 2, Russia's foreign
spy service released previously classified files on a double agent
who, under the codename "Britt", passed secrets to Moscow from
inside British intelligence in the 1940s.
(AP, 4/2/07)

2007 Apr 4, Iranís President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad freed the 15 detained British sailors and
marines as an Easter holiday "gift" to the British people. Syria
said it played a key role in resolving the standoff over the 15
British sailors and marines held by Iran. Turkey brokered the
release of the British sailors.
(AP, 4/4/07)(Econ, 8/21/10, p.42)

2007 Apr 5, Fifteen British
sailors and marines held captive by Iran returned home to a nation
relieved at their freedom but also outraged that they were used by
Tehran's propaganda machine.
(AP, 4/5/07)
2007 Apr 5, A British diplomat
met with Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh to push for the release of a
kidnapped BBC journalist, the first direct meeting between a
European Union diplomat and a Hamas official of the Palestinians'
new coalition government.
(AP, 4/5/07)

2007 Apr 6, A Royal Navy
lieutenant who was among the captives held by Iran said British
sailors and marines held for nearly two weeks were blindfolded,
bound and threatened with prison if they did not say they strayed
into Iranian waters.
(AP, 4/6/07)

2007 Apr 8, Britain's Defense
Ministry came under fire for allowing 15 British sailors and marines
held by Iran for 13 days to sell their stories to the media.
(Reuters, 4/8/07)

2007 Apr 9, Britain's
government beat a hasty retreat under withering criticism for
allowing sailors and marines to be paid large sums for their stories
about captivity in Iran.
(AP, 4/10/07)

2007 Apr 10, The European Court
of Human Rights ruled that a British woman left infertile after
being treated for ovarian cancer has no right to frozen embryos
against the wishes of her former fiance, who provided the sperm.
(AP, 4/10/07)

2007 Apr 11, PM Tony Blair
urged Britain's black communities to speak out against gang culture
and called again for tougher laws against gangs amid a spate of gun
and knife murders.
(AP, 4/11/07)

2007 Apr 12, In London the
Beatles' Apple Corps company settled a royalties dispute with record
label EMI, raising hopes that Beatles recordings may soon be legally
available online.
(AP, 4/12/07)

2007 Apr 13, Boris Berezovsky,
the exiled Russian tycoon who has emerged as one of the Kremlin's
most vocal opponents, called for the use of force to oust President
Vladimir Putin and claimed he has support from some in the country's
political elite. In response, Russia's chief prosecutor opened a
criminal case against Berezovsky on charges of plotting a coup.
Britain, granted Berezovsky refugee status in 2003.
(AP, 4/13/07)

2007 Apr 15, Blind British
aviator Miles Hilton-Barber, With the aid of co-copilot Richard
Meredith-Hardy, landed his microlight aircraft in Jakarta to
complete another leg of his London-Sydney charity flight.
(AFP, 4/15/07)

2007 Apr 16, Thousands of BBC
staff across Britain held a silent vigil to remember its kidnapped
Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston after a Palestinian group said it
had killed him. Johnston was snatched at gunpoint on March 12 as he
returned to his Gaza City home. Johnston was not killed and was
freed on July 4.
(AFP, 4/16/07)(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Apr 16, Scientists
reported that Britain once had around 25 native species of
bumblebee, but three of those have been wiped out in the past 50
years and 10 more are now severely threatened.
(Reuters, 4/16/07)

2007 Apr 17, The British pound
broke through the $2 mark for the first time in nearly 15 years
after new data showed an unexpected surge in inflation, prompting
speculation of interest rate increases.
(AP, 4/17/07)

2007 Apr 18, The British
Foreign Office expressed disappointment and disagreement with a
National Union of Journalists vote to call for a boycott on Israeli
goods.
(AP, 4/18/07)
2007 Apr 18, A report said
Britain has the worst level of drug abuse in Europe, and the second
highest level of drug-related deaths.
(AFP, 4/18/07)

2007 Apr 19, British aerospace
engine maker Rolls-Royce said that it will withdraw from Sudan,
citing "increasing international humanitarian concerns" in the
violence-scarred region of Darfur.
(AP, 4/19/07)

2007 Apr 22, Zhou Chunxiu made
history as the first Chinese runner to win the London marathon as
she came home in 2hrs 20min 38sec, finishing ahead of Ethiopia's
Gete Wami and Romanian Constantina Tomescu-Dita.
(AP, 4/22/07)

2007 Apr 23, British bank
Barclays Plc has agreed to buy Dutch rival ABN AMRO for about 67
billion euros ($91 billion) in shares as it attempts to fight off
rivals to clinch the world's biggest bank takeover.
(Reuters, 4/23/07)

2007 Apr 24, British
anti-terrorist police arrested six people who were suspected of
inciting others to commit acts of terrorism overseas and raising
funds for terrorism.
(AP, 4/24/07)
2007 Apr 24, A consortium led
by US private equity group KKR was left unchallenged in its quest to
take over Alliance Boots, after a rival British bidder withdrew its
bid for Europe's biggest pharmacy chain.
(AP, 4/24/07)

2007 Apr 25, Three European
banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland launched a blockbuster
72-billion-euro takeover battle for Dutch group ABN Amro, outgunning
by far an agreed offer by Barclays.
(AFP, 4/25/07)

2007 Apr 26, Britain widened an
investigation into the collection of human body parts for scientific
tests at nuclear plants. Unions representing nuclear industry
workers said as many as 70 people who worked at the Sellafield
nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in northern England and other
nuclear facilities may have had bones, organs or other tissue
removed for tests.
(AP, 4/26/07)

2007 Apr 30, A British judge
sentenced five men to life in prison for plotting to bomb several
targets in London including a popular nightclub, power plants and
shopping mall in a trial that exposed links between the men and at
least two of the suicide bombers who attacked the capital two years
ago. Mohammed Junaid Babar's testimony in the yearlong trial
revealed how disaffected Britons were trained for terrorism in
Pakistan, where many have family ties. The former terrorist turned
informant was arrested in New York in 2004, and has since given
evidence to prosecutors in Britain, the US and Pakistan.
(AP, 4/30/07)(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 Apr 30, Britain's first
convicted war criminal was sentenced to a year in prison and
dismissed from the army in connection with the death of an Iraqi
hotel worker. Corp. Donald Payne had pleaded guilty to inhumanely
treating Iraqi civilians in southern Basra in 2003.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 30, Miles
Hilton-Barber (58), A blind British adventurer, touched down in
Sydney Monday to end an epic 13,500-mile flight by microlight
aircraft from London. His 54-day journey was performed under the
supervision of sighted co-pilot Richard Meredith-Hardy.
(AP, 4/30/07)

2007 May 1, John Browne, head
of BP PLC, resigned after Britainís highest legal body triggered the
release of documents detailing his relationship with a former lover.
(WSJ, 5/2/07, p.A1)
2007 May 1, Britain's largest
ever trade union, representing about two million public and private
sector workers, was launched following the merger of two workers'
bodies. The Unite union officially formed following a recent vote
for merger by members of Amicus and the Transport and General
Workers Union, founded in 1922.
(AP,
5/1/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_and_General_Workers%27_Union)
2007 May 1, Thirty people were
arrested in raids across Belgium, England, and the Netherlands
targeting suspected animal rights extremists.
(AP, 5/1/07)

2007 May 3, Voters handed PM
Tony Blair's Labour Party a string of embarrassing defeats in local
elections.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 3, Madeleine McCann
(3), a British girl, was kidnapped from her bed in a Portuguese
beach resort while her parents dined nearby.
(Reuters, 5/5/07)
2007 May 3, Scotland held
parliamentary elections. Labor was knocked out of the top spot for
the 1st time in 50 years by the Scottish National Party. The SNP
supported a future referendum on independence. The SNP won 47 of the
129 seats.
(AFP, 5/3/07)(Econ, 5/12/07, p.61)(Reuters,
2/16/12)

2007 May 4, A British court
found Frederick Chiluba, Zambia's first democratically elected
president (1991-2001), guilty of stealing $46 million in government
funds and ordered him to repay the entire sum. He had gone on trial
in Zambia in 2003, accused of 169 counts of corruption, abuse of
power and theft, but was declared unfit to stand trial on the
grounds of ill health.
(AP, 5/4/07)(Econ, 11/21/09, p.51)
2007 May 4, Reuters Group PLC
said that it had received a preliminary takeover approach. The
bidder was identified as Thomson Corp., a financial data and
information provider based in Stamford, Conn.
(AP, 5/4/07)

2007 May 5, In southern Nigeria
armed men kidnapped a Briton overnight from the Trident 8 oil rig.
(AFP, 5/5/07)

2007 May 6, Britainís Home
Secretary John Reid announced that he would resign from the
government within weeks, just as Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon
Brown is likely to take over from Tony Blair as prime minister.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 May 6, Lord Weatherill
(86), the last speaker to wear the traditional shoulder-length wig,
died. He had ushered Britain's House of Commons into the television
age.
(AP, 5/8/07)

2007 May 7, Stylist and fashion
guru Isabella Blow (b.1958)), a vibrant and often outrageous
presence on the British fashion scene, died of cancer.
(AP, 5/8/07)

2007 May 8, News and
information company Reuters Group PLC and financial data provider
Thomson Corp. confirmed that they are discussing a combination of
their businesses that values Reuters at more than $17 billion.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 8, A survey showed
that London beat the glamour of Monaco, New York, Hong Kong and
Tokyo to become the world's most expensive place to buy residential
property.
(AFP, 5/8/07)

2007 May 9, Britainís Home
Office, once called "not fit for purpose" by the minister in charge
of it, was split into two in a bid to combat illegal immigration,
crime and terrorism more effectively. British police arrested four
people in connection with the suicide bombings that killed 52 bus
and subway passengers in London in 2005.
(AFP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/9/07)

2007 May 10, Britainís PM Tony
Blair said he would step down on June 27. The Bank of England raised
its key interest rate by a quarter of a point to 5.5%, the highest
level since 2001, to tackle surging inflation.
(AP, 5/10/07)

2007 May 11, Gordon Brown
launched his campaign to become Britain's next prime minister,
pledging to learn from the mistakes of the Iraq war. Tony Blair has
formally endorsed Gordon Brown to be prime minister.
(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 11, British private
equity group Terra Firma swooped into the aviation sector to become
the world's third-biggest aircraft leasing operator, snapping up US
firm Pegasus for 5.2 billion dollars.
(AP, 5/11/07)

2007 May 15, Reuters agreed to
a $17.2 billion takeover by Thomson that would vault the combined
entity ahead of Bloomberg to become the world's largest financial
data and news provider.
(AP, 5/15/07)
2007 May 15, PM Bertie Ahern
became the first Irish leader to address the joint houses of the
British Parliament.
(AP, 5/15/08)

2007 May 16, Gen. Sir Richard
Dannatt, British army chief of staff, announced that Prince Harry
would not go to Iraq because of "specific threats" to his life that
would expose the prince and his fellow soldiers to unacceptable
risk.
(AP, 5/17/07)

2007 May 20, Fiona Dawson,
managing director of the Mars snack food business in Britain,
apologized for a widely mocked decision to use animal products in
chocolate bars and said in future its candy would be suitable for
vegetarians.
(AP, 5/20/07)

2007 May 21, In Greenwich,
England, a spectacular fire heavily damaged the clipper ship Cutty
Sark, one of London's proudest relics of the 19th century tea trade
with China designed to be the fastest ship of its day. Cutty Sark
left London on its first voyage on Feb. 16, 1870, proceeding around
Cape Hope to Shanghai 3 1/2 months later. The ship made only eight
voyages to China in the tea trade, as steam ships replaced sail on
the high seas.
(AP, 5/21/07)

2007 May 22, Prosecutors in
London accused Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB agent, of murder
in the radioactive poisoning of fellow ex-operative Alexander
Litvinenko and sought his extradition from Russia. The Russian
prosecutor-general's office said it will not turn over Lugovoi to
British authorities.
(AP, 5/22/07)

2007 May 23, The High Court in
London upheld a ruling letting families return to their Indian Ocean
island homes, from where they were forced out 30 years ago to make
way for a US military base. The Court of Appeal backed a High
Court ruling in May last year that allowed the families to return to
the Chagos Islands, except for Diego Garcia, a launchpad for US
military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(AFP, 5/23/07)

2007 May 24, Britain's Court of
Appeal upheld a $95 million award to the ex-wife of insurance tycoon
John Charman (54), the largest judgment ever in a contested divorce
in England and Wales. Jenny Bailey (45), a female councilor who was
born a man and fathered two children, was sworn in as Britain's
first transsexual mayor. Bailey, a Liberal Democrat, became the
civic leader of the Cambridge City Council.
(AFP, 5/24/07)

2007 May 25, British
authorities said 4 people in north Wales have tested positive for a
mild strain of bird flu, linked to the H7N2 low pathogenic avian
influenza found in chickens.
(AP, 5/25/07)
2007 May 25, Abdullah
el-Faisal, a Muslim cleric named by the British government as a key
influence on one of four men who carried out the deadly London
transport bombings in 2005, was deported to Jamaica after being
released from prison.
(AP, 5/26/07)

2007 May 27, Edward Behr (81),
a noted British foreign correspondent and writer who penned books on
history, good eating and his career as a journalist, died in Paris.
(AP, 5/28/07)

2007 May 28, Britainís public
health minister said beer, wine and hard liquor packaging in Britain
will carry warning labels next year detailing how many units of
alcohol each drink contains as well as recommended safe drinking
levels.
(AP, 5/28/07)

2007 May 29, Libya said it will
sign a 900 million dollar exploration deal with energy giant BP,
which plans to return after a 33 year absence. British PM Tony Blair
arrived in Libya and welcomed improved relations as oil companies
from both countries signed a major deal.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 May 29, In Iraq 5 British
men were pulled out of a Finance Ministry office by about 40 heavily
armed men in police uniforms in broad daylight and driven in a
convoy of 19 four-wheel-drive vehicles toward Sadr City. Management
consultant Peter Moore and four of his security guards were seized.
In 2008 a Shiite militia that claimed responsibility for the
kidnapping said a hostage named Jason had committed suicide on May
25. The bodies of Alec MacLachlan (30), Jason Swindlehurst (38), and
Jason Creswell (39) were handed over to British officials in 2009.
Moore was released on Dec 30, 2009. The body of Alan McMenemy was
returned in early 2012. Two car bombers hit neighborhoods on
opposite sides of the Tigris River, killing 40 people and wounding
more than 100 others. 3 German computer consultants were kidnapped
from an Iraqi Finance Ministry office in Baghdad. Gunmen in Samarra
set up fake checkpoints on the outskirts of the city and abducted
more than 40 people, most of them soldiers, police officers and
members of two tribes that had banded together against local
insurgents. Col. Hamid Ibrahim al-Jazaa, a Sunni police chief
praised by US forces for clearing his city of insurgents, was
arrested following an investigation into alleged murder, corruption
and crimes against the Iraqi people. Al-Jazaa, his brother and 14
bodyguards were taken into custody in the city of Hit. One US
soldier died of wounds from a roadside bomb attack northwest of
Baghdad.
(AP, 5/29/07)(AP, 5/30/07)(AP, 5/31/07)(AP,
7/20/08)(AP, 7/29/09)(AP, 12/30/09)(AFP, 1/20/12)

2007 May 30, Outgoing British
PM Tony Blair arrived in the small west African nation of Sierra
Leone on the second leg of a three-nation African tour.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 May 30, Global banking
giant HSBC donated 50 million pounds (73.5 million euros, 98.8
million dollars) to set up a "green task force" to tackle climate
change worldwide. HSBC teamed up with The Climate Group, Earthwatch
Institute, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and WWF to
provide conservation managers and policy makers with the latest
research.
(AFP, 5/30/07)

2007 Jun 1, Alan Johnston, a
British reporter kidnapped in the Gaza Strip nearly three months,
ago appeared in a videotape posted on an Islamic militant Web site,
saying his captors had treated him well, denouncing Israel, and
criticizing British and US Mideast policy.
(AP, 6/1/07)

2007 Jun 2, In England
Authorized won the Epsom Derby giving riding legend Frankie Dettori
his first win in the race on his 15th ride.
(AFP, 6/2/07)

2007 Jun 4, PM Tony Blair said
the British government is to boost funding to help train Muslim
imams at universities and to step up the promotion of moderate
Islam.
(AP, 6/4/07)

2007 Jun 6, Nigeria's
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won Britain's Orange Prize for fiction by
women for her book ďHalf of a Yellow Sun," becoming the first
African to take the award in its 12-year history.
(AP, 6/6/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.54)

2007 Jun 7, British media
reported that Saudi Arabiaís Prince Bandar bin Sultan pocketed about
$2 billion in secret payments as part of an $80 billion arms deal
between Britain and Saudi Arabia first signed in 1985.
(SFC, 6/8/07, p.A16)
2007 Jun 7, The Bollywood
Oscars was formally launched in England.
(AP, 6/7/07)
2007 Jun 7, Europe's first
train operated on environmentally friendly bio-fuel went into
service with PM-designate Gordon Brown traveling on its maiden
journey. The train, modified to run on a blended fuel which is 20%
bio-diesel, will travel across England, south Wales and Scotland
during a six-month experiment that has been organized by Virgin
Trains.
(AFP, 6/7/07)

2007 Jun 8, The Royal Navy's
largest and most powerful attack submarine, the giant
nuclear-powered HMS Astute, was given a beery royal launch.
(AFP, 6/8/07)

2007 Jun 11, In London,
England, Mahmod Mahmod (52), a Kurdish father who ordered his
daughter brutally slain for falling in love with the wrong man in a
so-called "honor killing," was found guilty of murder. In early 2006
Banaz Mahmod (20) was strangled with a boot lace, stuffed into a
suitcase and buried in a back garden. In 2007 Mahmod Mahmod, and
uncle Ari Mahmod, were sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 6/11/07)(AP, 7/20/07)

2007 Jun 12, In London Chinua
Achebe (76), a Nigerian novelist, won the Booker Intíl. Prize for
fiction, awarded every 2 years for a body of fiction. He is best
known for his 1st book ďThings Fall Apart" (1958).
(SFC, 6/13/07, p.E5)

2007 Jun 13, British Home
Secretary John Reid said the government is to run a pilot scheme
giving convicted pedophiles drugs to suppress their libido, or
so-called "chemical castration."
(AFP, 6/13/07)

2007 Jun 15, Britain announced
the knighthood of author Salman Rushdie. This soon sparked rage
among many Muslims.
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.63)
2007 Jun 15, A London court
jailed 7 Britons linked to a plot to blow up US financial
institutions and stage a series of attacks in Britain, for a total
of 136 years.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 15, The Gulf state of
Qatar tightened its grip on J Sainsbury, Britain's third biggest
supermarket chain, by raising its stake to 25%, sparking speculation
it may launch a takeover.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 15, Russia's security
agency announced an espionage investigation based on statements by
the suspect in Andrei Litvinenko's radiation poisoning, a move
apparently targeting a Kremlin foe in Britain.
(AP, 6/15/07)

2007 Jun 16, Spanish police,
working with US and British authorities, seized four tons of cocaine
aboard a ship off the northwest coast.
(AP, 6/18/07)

2007 Jun 18, Authorities said
British police, with aid from US investigators, have shattered a
global Internet pedophile ring, rescuing 31 children and rounding up
more than 700 suspects worldwide.
(AP, 6/18/07)
2007 Jun 18, Pakistan demanded
that Britain withdraw a knighthood awarded to author Salman Rushdie,
as a government minister said the honor gave a justification for
suicide attacks by Muslims.
(AP, 6/18/07)

2007 Jun 19, "The Lord of the
Rings" musical, the most expensive production in West End history,
opened at London's Theatre Royal to mixed reviews, with some critics
praising it as brilliant and others calling it corny and "a thumping
great flop."
(AP, 6/20/07)

2007 Jun 21, In London,
England, Damien Hirstís ďLullaby spring" sold for $19.1 million, the
highest price paid at auction for a work by a living artist. The
work consisted of a stainless steel cabinet containing 6,136
hand-crafted and painted pills. It was purchased by Sheikha
al-Mayassa al-Thani, the daughter of the emir of Qatar.
(SFC, 6/23/07, p.E4)(Econ, 9/11/10, p.99)
2007 Jun 21, Britain and the
United States signed a treaty to cut red tape on arms deals and
improve the compatibility of military equipment.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 21, A hitman sent to
Britain to kill Boris Berezovsky (61) was arrested by British
security services as he planned the murder. He was turned over
to immigration services and soon deported.
(www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2096367.ece)
2007 Jun 21, At Stonehenge,
England, Druids, drummers, pagans and partygoers welcomed the sun as
it rose above the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge on the longest
day of the year, the summer solstice.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 21, In Pakistan
thousands rallied in support of the suspended chief justice,
accusing President Gen. Pervez Musharraf of attacking the judiciary
and burning a US flag to protest Washington's backing for the
general's continued rule. Pakistani traders announced a reward of 10
million rupees (165,000 dollars) for anyone who beheads Salman
Rushdie following Britain's decision to award the novelist a
knighthood. Islamic scholars bestowed a top honor on Osama bin Laden
in response to the British accolade.
(AP, 6/21/07)(AFP, 6/21/07)

2007 Jun 22, British energy
group BP, facing pressure from the Kremlin, said that it had agreed
to sell its stakes in a Siberian gas field and company to Russian
gas giant Gazprom for up to 900 million dollars (669 million euros).
(AP, 6/22/07)(WSJ, 6/22/07, p.A3)

2007 Jun 23, Britainís PM Tony
Blair held long talks with Pope Benedict XVI, with the Vatican stop
on his farewell tour fueling rumors that he plans to convert to
Catholicism.
(AP, 6/23/07)

2007 Jun 24, Treasury chief
Gordon Brown, three days before taking over from Tony Blair as
premier, replaced Blair as leader of Britain's Labor Party and vowed
that the country's foreign policy will recognize that defeating
terrorism "involves more than military force."
(AP, 6/24/07)

2007 Jun 25, The final British
troops withdrew from the Northern Ireland borderland long known as
"bandit country," ending a 37-year mission to keep watch over the
Irish Republican Army's most dangerous power base.
(AP, 6/25/07)

2007 Jun 26, Residents across
England mopped up after flash floods killed 4 people and forced
hundreds from their homes.
(AP, 6/26/07)(Econ, 6/30/07, p.66)
2007 Jun 26, In Jerusalem
international Mideast negotiators searched for ways to revive peace
talks after Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip. US officials said
they were expected to name outgoing British PM Tony Blair as a
senior envoy.
(AP, 6/26/07)

2007 Jun 27, Gordon Brown
became British prime minister, promising a new government with new
priorities, after Tony Blair resigned to end a decade in power.
Major Western powers agreed on the mandate for a new Middle East
envoy and named Tony Blair to the position after he stepped down as
prime minister. A statement from the Quartet (US, UN, EU, Russia)
said Blair will focus on mobilizing international support and
assistance for the Palestinians.
(AP, 6/27/07)(Reuters, 6/27/07)(AP, 6/28/07)

2007 Jun 29, British police
thwarted a devastating terrorist plot, discovering two Mercedes
loaded with nails packed around canisters of propane and gasoline
set to detonate and kill possibly hundreds in London's crowded
theater and nightclub district. On Dec 16, 2008, Bilal Abdulla (29),
an Iraqi doctor who claimed he intended only to frighten Britons,
was convicted of conspiracy to murder with car bombs in London and
Scotland.
(AP, 6/30/07)(AP, 12/16/08)
2007 Jun 29, Britain's first
postal strike in more than a decade was triggered by a row over pay
and government plans to cut thousands of jobs. Union bosses claimed
the 24-hour walkout would be carried out by up to 130,000 workers.
(AFP, 6/29/07)
2007 Jun 29, In Scotland a
four-wheel-drive Jeep rammed into the main terminal at Glasgow
airport and exploded in flames. Police arrested two men for the
attack, one of them under guard in the hospital after being engulfed
in flames when the Jeep crashed into the airport. The driver was
later identified as Kafeel Ahmed (28), an Indian aeronautical
engineer.
(Reuters, 6/30/07)(AP, 7/1/07)(SFC, 7/9/07, p.A8)

2007 Jul 1, British police
arrested two people, a 26-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, on a
major highway in Cheshire, northern England, in a joint swoop by
officers from London and Birmingham, Scotland Yard said in London in
relation to the attack in Glasgow and 2 car bombs in London. A fifth
suspect was arrested in Liverpool. 2 more arrests in the failed car
bombings brought the total to 7.
(AP, 7/1/07)(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 1, England slammed the
door on smoking in bars, workplaces and public buildings in what
campaigners hail as the biggest boost to public health since the
creation of the National Health Service in 1948.
(AP, 7/1/07)

2007 Jul 2, Police in Australia
arrested a 27-year-old Indian doctor over the foiled terror attacks
in London and Glasgow, and were interviewing a second doctor in the
case.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, Count Gottfried von
Bismarck (44), whose life of privileged excess as a descendant of
Germany's "Iron Chancellor" was clouded by two deaths at his
decadent parties, was found dead at his $10 million apartment in
London's Chelsea district.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 2, In Ghana 2 British
girls were stopped with 300,000 pounds (443,000 euros, 610,000
dollars) worth of cocaine during a joint Ghanaian-British narcotics
operation. They were found guilty on November 21 and were released
on July 17, 2008.
(AFP, 7/17/08)

2007 Jul 3, British police
focused on at least four physicians with roots outside Britain,
including a doctor seized at an Australian airport with a one-way
ticket, in the investigation into failed car bombings in Glasgow and
London.
(AP, 7/3/07)

2007 Jul 4, Palestinian gunmen
released Alan Johnston, a British journalist, who had been kidnapped
March 12. The powerful Dughmush clan got to keep its weapons in
return for giving Johnston up.
(AP, 7/5/07)(Econ, 7/7/07, p.46)

2007 Jul 5, British media
reported that a Scottish house had been used as a makeshift bomb
factory to carry out the terror attacks in London and Scotland.
Three "cyber-jihadis" who used the Internet to urge Muslims to wage
holy war on non-believers were jailed for between six-and-a-half and
10 years in the first case of its kind in Britain. Morocco-born
Younis Tsouli (23), an al-Qaida-inspired computer expert who dubbed
himself "the jihadist James Bond," was sentenced to 10 years in
prison for running a network of extremist Web sites. Accomplices
Tariq al-Daour and Waseem Mughal also got prison terms.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AFP, 7/5/07)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.29)
2007 Jul 5, The Bank of England
raised its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to
5.75 percent, the fifth increase this year, in an attempt to curb
inflation.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Two thieves showed
up at a London jeweler in a flashy car and made off with an even
flashier haul, stealing about $20 million worth of diamonds and
gems.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 5, George Melly,
English jazzman and writer, died in London of lung cancer.
(Econ, 7/14/07,
p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Melly)

2007 Jul 9, A London jury
convicted four Muslim militants of plotting to bomb London's public
transport system.
(AP, 7/9/08)

2007 Jul 13, A court in Brazil
issued an arrest warrant for self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris
Berezovsky on charges of money-laundering, but he denied any
involvement. The case dates back to 2004, when MSI spent millions of
dollars acquiring new players, which raised the interest of Sao
Paulo state prosecutors. They wanted to know more about the
investment group, its Iranian-born president, Kia Joorabchian, and
the origin of the money he and his unidentified partners injected
into the club. Brazilian prosecutors said they have also issued an
arrest warrant for Joorabchian, a British citizen.
(AP, 7/13/07)

2007 Jul 14, In London an
Indian doctor arrested the same day his brother allegedly drove a
Jeep Cherokee loaded with gas bombs into Glasgow's main airport was
charged with a terrorism offense. A distant cousin in Australia was
also charged in the failed attacks in London and Glasgow.
(AP, 7/14/07)

2007 Jul 15, Britain released
without charge 2 suspects in the failed car bomb attacks in London
and Glasgow last month.
(AFP, 7/15/07)

2007 Jul 16, Britain ordered
the expulsion of four Russian diplomats because of Moscow's refusal
to extradite the lead suspect in the fatal poisoning of a former KGB
officer in London.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 16, The High Court in
London upheld a ban on a teenager from wearing a so-called "purity
ring" at school to signal her refusal of sex before marriage.
(AP, 7/16/07)

2007 Jul 17, A British court
sentenced Yassin Nassari (27), a British-born Syrian cleric, to 3Ĺ
years in prison for bringing missile plans into Britain in 2006. He
had led a branch of the Islamic Society at the Univ. of Westminster.
Nassari served just over seven months of his sentence.
(Econ, 1/9/10,
p.61)(www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/28/terror.release)
2007 Jul 17, Russia vowed a
"targeted and appropriate" response to Britain's expulsion of four
diplomats in a mounting confrontation over the probe into the
radiation poisoning death of a former KGB officer.
(AP, 7/17/07)

2007 Jul 18, In London 3 Muslim
men were jailed for 6 years for their role in a heated protest
outside the Danish embassy in 2006, following the publication of
cartoons in a Danish newspaper making fun of the Prophet and of
Muslims generally. A 4th man was sentenced to 4 years.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.55)

2007 Jul 21, The protracted
suspense finally lifted for Harry Potter fans who flooded bookshops
worldwide to grab the series finale, "Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows," and find out whether author J.K. Rowling slays or spares
the boy wizard.
(AFP, 7/21/07)(AP, 7/21/08)
2007 Jul 21, Helicopters
rescued dozens of people following heavy rains and floods in England
that also forced more than 2,000 motorists, homeowners and train
passengers to spend the night in shelters.
(AP, 7/21/07)

2007 Jul 23, Former British
Prime Minister Tony Blair, in his new capacity as a Mideast envoy,
opened his mission to help Palestinians build solid foundations for
their future state.
(AP, 7/23/08)

2007 Jul 24, Heavy rain and
extreme temperatures continued to batter Europe, with Britain caught
in its worst floods in living memory while the Balkans sizzled in
heatwaves that killed at least 35 people.
(AP, 7/24/07)

2007 Jul 25, British Defense
Secretary Des Browne announced that Britain has agreed to let the US
use a Royal Air Force base as part of its planned missile defense
system. The British government said it will build two new aircraft
carriers costing 3.9 billion pounds in a project which will support
10,000 British jobs over the next ten years.
(AP, 7/25/07)

2007 Jul 26, In London,
England, Bachan Athwal (70), a British grandmother, faced life
imprisonment after being convicted of the "honor killing" of her
son's wife who she murdered after luring her to India. Her son (43)
was also found guilty of murder. The two killed Sikh Heathrow
Airport worker Surjit Kaur Athwal (27), who disappeared in December
1998 after she decided to walk out of her arranged marriage.
(Reuters, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, A London court
sentenced five students to jail for collecting information on
bomb-making and terrorism.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, A bull named
Shambo was taken away from a Hindu monastery at Skanda Vale, Wales,
ending a long and public battle between Hindus who revere bulls and
authorities who said he must be killed because he had tested
positive for tuberculosis.
(AP, 7/28/07)

2007 Jul 27, Afghan and NATO
troops over the last 24 hours clashed with Taliban insurgents and
called in airstrikes, killing at least 50 suspected militants and
dozens of civilians. The third British soldier to die in three days
in southern Afghanistan was killed in a rocket attack.
(AP, 7/27/07)(AFP, 7/28/07)

2007 Jul 29, Britainís PM
Gordon Brown traveled to the United States, saying he planned to use
the official visit to strengthen what Britain already considers its
"most important bilateral relationship."
(AP, 7/29/07)

2007 Jul 30, US President
George W. Bush and Britainís PM Gordon Brown held talks. Brown hoped
to secure support for a Darfur peace deal and movement on stalled
world trade talks. Bush and PM Brown, meeting at Camp David, forged
a unified stand on Iraq.
(AP, 7/30/07)(AP, 7/30/08)

2007 Jul 31, The British army
marked a milestone of peacemaking as it formally ended its 38-year
mission to bolster security in Northern Ireland.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, Norman Cohn (92),
English historian, died. He studied the links between apocalyptic
Medieval sects and 20th century totalitarianism and genocide. His
1957 book: "Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians
and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages" drew parallels between
millenarian movements in the Middle Ages and the rise of
20th-century totalitarianism.
(AP, 8/27/07)

2007 Jul, Andy Coulson, former
editor at News of the World, became the communications head for
David Cameron, leader of the Britainís opposition Conservative
Party.
(Econ, 7/16/11,
p.26)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Coulson)

2007 Aug 1, A financial
watchdog said British Airways has been fined a record 121.5 million
pounds (180 million euros, $246 million) after admitting collusion
with Virgin Atlantic over fuel surcharges on tickets. British
Airways and Korean Air (for collusion with Lufthansa) agreed to pay
$300 million each in fines and plead guilty to federal charges that
they colluded with other airlines to set ticket prices. In 2012 the
fine against BA was reduced to £58.5 million.
(AFP, 8/1/07)(SFC, 8/2/07, p.C2)(Econ, 8/4/07,
p.48)(AFP, 4/19/12)

2007 Aug 3, Four people were
killed after a helicopter flying from northern England to southern
Scotland crashed in northwest England. The wreckage was found the
next day.
(AFP, 8/4/07)

2007 Aug 4, British PM Gordon
Brown said that authorities were doing "everything in our power" to
track the source of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak and wipe out
the animal illness before it wreaked economic devastation.
(AP, 8/4/07)

2007 Aug 6, The European
Commission announced a formal EU-wide import ban on meat and
livestock from the British mainland following the outbreak there of
foot and mouth disease. The outbreak halted British animal movement
and the export ban was estimated to be costing the British meat
industry some £10 million a week.
(AP, 8/6/07)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.45)

2007 Aug 7, Britain called for
the Bush administration to release five British residents held at
Guantanamo Bay, a policy reversal that suggests new PM Gordon Brown
is pursuing a tougher line with the US than his predecessor.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Britainís
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said tests had confirmed a second
foot-and-mouth outbreak in southern England as he awaited an initial
report into biosecurity at a vaccine laboratory suspected of being
at the center of the cases.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Britain's GW
Pharmaceuticals Plc said that Health Canada had approved its
cannabis-based medicine Sativex for treatment of cancer patients.
(AP, 8/7/07)

2007 Aug 8, A British air force
helicopter crashed near an army base in northern England, killing
two military personnel and injuring 10.
(AP, 8/9/07)

2007 Aug 10, PM Gordon Brown
said that foot-and-mouth disease had been contained within a small
area of England, despite tests for a suspected new outbreak in a
herd several miles from the initial cluster of cases.
(AP, 8/10/07)

2007 Aug 12, In England Gerry
Tobin was shot in the back of the head as he rode home from an
annual biker event, the Bulldog Bash, in Warwickshire. Police later
arrested 3 men in connection with the shooting death of the Canadian
Hells Angel biker on the M40 motorway.
(Reuters, 8/22/07)

2007 Aug 13, AkzoNobel, a Dutch
chemicals group under Hans Wijers, made a cash offer for the British
firm ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) under John McAdam for $16
billion. The deal turned Akzo into the worldís biggest maker of
paints.
(Econ, 10/04/08,
p.72)(www.ici.com/main/cms/cmRender.asp?i=2162)

2007 Aug 17, Bill Deedes
(b.1913), British journalist and politician, died in Kent, England.
He is the only person in Britain to have been both a member of the
British cabinet and the editor of a major daily newspaper.
(Econ, 8/25/07,
p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Deedes)

2007 Aug 18, In Britain a man
died and six other people were missing after a fire gutted a hotel
in the popular seaside resort of Newquay.
(AP, 8/18/07)

2007 Aug 20, Britain eased
restrictions on the movement of cattle and sheep to following the
outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in southern England.
(AP, 8/20/07)

2007 Aug 22, Rhys Jones (11)
was killed as he was kicking a ball around with friends outside a
pub in Liverpool, north-west England. Police soon arrested five
young people, including two girls, in relation to his murder. On Dec
16, 2008, Sean Mercer (18) was found guilty of murdering Jones and
was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison.
(AFP, 8/25/07)(AFP, 4/16/08)(AP, 12/16/08)

2007 Aug 23, The EU relaxed a
ban on exports of British livestock, meat and dairy products that
was imposed after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in
southeastern England earlier this month.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, In southern
Afghanistan a bomb dropped by a US fighter jet was believed to have
killed 3 British soldiers in Helmand province. Two other soldiers
were injured.
(AP, 8/24/07)

2007 Aug 29, Britain unveiled a
statue of Nelson Mandela outside the houses of Parliament, honoring
the South African anti-apartheid campaigner as one of the great
leaders of his era.
(AP, 8/29/07)

2007 Aug 30, In London a
diamond-encrusted skull by British artist Damien Hirst (41) sold for
100 million dollars (75 million euros), a record price for work sold
by a living artist.
(AFP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, Michael Jackson
(65), a leading world beer critic, died in London. He praised the
brews of Belgium and his books "The Great Beers of Belgium" and
"World Guide to Beer" introduced them to many export markets,
including the United States.
(AP, 8/31/07)(www.beerhunter.com/)

2007 Aug, In London, England,
Baby P (Peter Connelly) was 17 months old when he died in a
blood-spattered cot, having spent much of his life being used as "a
punchbag." Social workers, police and health professionals failed to
save him despite 60 visits over eight months, during which time he
suffered more than 50 horrific injuries. His mother (27) and 2 men
were charged with causing the babyís death. The trio received
minimum prison terms of 5, 12 and 3 years respectively. Sharon
Shoesmith was sacked as director of children's services from
Haringey Council in December 2008 after a damning Ofsted report into
her department's role into the death of Baby P. In 2010 Dr Jerome
Ikwueke (63) was found guilty of misconduct after a series of
failings during consultations with the toddler at his north London
surgery.
(AFP, 11/12/08)(AFP, 4/23/10)(AFP, 7/16/10)

2007 Sep 3, A woman joined the
protectors of the Crown Jewels as one of the famed Beefeaters of the
Tower of London, becoming the first female Yeoman Warder since the
corps of Tower guards was created in 1485.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 3, Iraqi soldiers
hoisted the nation's flag over the Basra palace compound after
British troops withdrew from their last garrison in the city,
leaving the country's second biggest city largely in the hands in
the hands of Iranian-backed Shiite militias. In a statement posted
on an Islamic Web site, the Islamic State of Iraq, made up of 8
insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq, said its leader Abu
Omar al-Baghdadi chose Mohammed Khalil al-Badria for the education
position. The so-called 10-member "Islamic Cabinet" was set up in
April to challenge the Iraqi government. President Bush made a
surprise visit to al-Asad Air Base west of Baghdad, hoping to
bolster his case that the buildup of US troops is helping to
stabilize the country.
(AP, 9/3/07)

2007 Sep 4, Most of London's
sprawling transport network shut down after maintenance workers
walked off the job, arousing commuter anger and drawing warnings the
strike will inconvenience millions of Britons. Subway maintenance
workers agreed to cut short the strike.
(AP, 9/4/07)(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, A Eurostar train
shattered the record for the quickest rail journey between Paris and
London, using a new high-speed track that shaved some 30 minutes off
the previous fastest time. The 306 mile (492 kilometer) journey from
the Gare du Nord in Paris to Saint Pancras took just two hours,
three minutes and 39 seconds from station to station.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, Jane Tomlinson
(43), terminal cancer sufferer, died in London following a 7-year
battle against the disease. Tomlinson had raised thousands of pounds
after being diagnosed with terminal breast cancer by taking on a
series of grueling physical challenges.
(AFP, 9/4/07)

2007 Sep 9, The British couple
named as suspects in the disappearance of their 4-year-old daughter
returned to England, days after being grilled by Portuguese police
about new forensic evidence authorities believe ties them to the
case.
(AP, 9/9/07)

2007 Sep 10, Dame Anita Roddick
(64), founder of Body Shop, died after suffering a major brain
hemorrhage. She used her international cosmetics chain to promote
eco-friendly practices long before they were widely fashionable. She
had opened her first shop in Brighton in 1976 and sold the business
in 2006 to LíOreal for $1.1 billion.
(AP, 9/10/07)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.80)

2007 Sep 11, The European
Commission has ditched its attempt to impose the metric system on
Ireland and Britain, where a grocer was once convicted of selling
bananas by the pound rather than by the kilo. The EU said it will
lift all remaining restrictions on British meat and livestock next
month after veterinary experts agreed that the threat from a
foot-and-mouth disease outbreak was over.
(AP, 9/11/07)(AFP, 9/11/07)

2007 Sep 12, The specter of
foot and mouth disease returned to haunt Britain after a new
suspected outbreak was detected close to last month's outbreak site.
(AFP, 9/12/07)

2007 Sep 13, In London,
England, Ian Strachan (30) and Sean McGuigan (40) were charged with
blackmail. The two suspects had approached an unidentified royal
family member in August and demanded $100,000 not to publicize a
video allegedly showing the royal engaged in a sex act. The charges
did not become public until Oct 28.
(AP, 10/30/07)

2007 Sep 14, The global credit
crisis struck Northern Rock PLC, Britainís 5th largest mortgage
lender, as the Bank of England said it had approved emergency
funding to help the bank overcome a liquidity crisis.
(AP, 9/14/07)(Econ, 9/22/07, p.92)

2007 Sep 17, In London,
England, panicky depositors converged on Northern Rock branches for
a third day to grab savings from the beleaguered mortgage lender,
the latest victim of a global credit crunch.
(AFP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, Sotheby's canceled
a London auction Set for Sep 18 after Alisher Usmanov, a Russian
tycoon paid about 25 percent more than the estimated price for the
art collection of the late cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. A
government agency "presented some guarantees to Sotheby's that this
transaction would be in the interest of the Russian Federation."
(AP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 17, Saudi Arabia
announced it has signed a 4.43 billion pound (8.86 billion dollar)
deal to buy 72 Eurofighter planes, after tortuous negotiations on
one of the largest ever British export orders.
(AP, 9/17/07)

2007 Sep 18, In London shares
in troubled mortgage lender Northern Rock rose on a promise by the
central bank to back its deposits, but worried customers continued
to line up to withdraw their savings.
(AP, 9/18/07)

2007 Sep 19, The Bank of
England announced that it would inject 10 billion pounds into
longer-term money markets next week amid the ongoing global credit
squeeze.
(AFP, 9/19/07)
2007 Sep 19, Bachan Athwal
(70), a London grandmother, was jailed for life for ordering the
execution of Surjit Athwal, her cheating daughter-in-law in India,
after discovering she was having an affair with a married man.
Athwalís 43-year-old son Sukhdave was also found guilty and jailed
for a minimum 27-year term.
(AFP, 9/19/07)

2007 Sep 20, The British
competition watchdog accused British supermarkets and dairies on of
colluding to fix prices, resulting in customers being overcharged
270 million pounds (386 million euros, 542 million dollars) for
dairy products.
(AP, 9/20/07)
2007 Sep 20, Borse Dubai and
Nasdaq, rivals to take over Nordic market operator OMX, said they
had joined forces to acquire it together in a deal that gives Borse
Dubai 19.99 percent of US-based Nasdaq and 28 percent of the London
Stock Exchange.
(AP, 9/20/07)

2007 Sep 21, Playboy opened its
first store in Europe at the heart of London's shopping district,
continuing its evolution from adult magazine to international
merchandising brand.
(AP, 9/21/07)
2007 Sep 21, A new case of
foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed in cattle on a farm in southern
England.
(AP, 9/21/07)

2007 Sep 23, The campaign group
End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of
Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) said criminal gangs are
trafficking hundreds of children into Britain and forcing them to
work in cannabis factories, with at least one child per week being
found by police.
(AFP, 9/23/07)

2007 Sep 27, Miles Cooper (27),
a caretaker at a primary school in Cambridge, was convicted of
sending a spate of letter bombs that hurt eight people in England
and Wales earlier this year.
(AFP, 9/27/07)

2007 Sep 28, Britain's biggest
water supplier was handed a fine of more than 12 million pounds for
"inadequate" reporting to the industry regulator and poor customer
service to its eight million customers.
(AFP, 9/28/07)
2007 Sep 28, Britainís deputy
chief veterinarian said bluetongue disease is circulating in Britain
after being reported in a cow at the weekend in southern England.
(AP, 9/28/07)

2007 Oct 1, Britainís Racial
and Religious Hatred Act came into force. This made it a crime for
anyone to use threatening words or behavior with the intention of
stirring up religious hatred. Britainís Equality and Human Rights
Commission (EHRC) was created to succeed the Commission for Racial
Equality.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.67)(Econ, 6/27/09,
p.61)(www.out-law.com/page-8512)
2007 Oct 1, The London Stock
Exchange completed its purchase of Borsa Italiana, cementing its
position as Europe's biggest equity market.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, The British
Broadcasting Corp. said it bought a 75-percent stake in the Lonely
Planet travel guides.
(AP, 10/1/07)

2007 Oct 2, Magda Pniewska
(26), a Polish woman, was shot in the head and died after being
caught in the cross-fire between two gunmen in a residential street
in London. On April 22, 2008, Armel Gnango (17) was convicted of
murder for being involved in the gunfight.
(AFP, 10/3/07)(AFP, 5/22/08)
2007 Oct 2, The United Iraqi
Alliance, the Shiite bloc of PM al-Maliki, demanded that the US
military abandon its recruitment of Sunni tribesmen into the Iraqi
police force. Britain's PM Brown arrived in Iraq to meet troops and
lawmakers and announced plans to withdraw more than 1,000 troops
from Iraq by year's end, and Iraq said it will take over security
from British forces in the southern Basra province within two
months. 11 people were killed, including two women, a child and four
police officers, in five separate attacks, including a suicide car
bombing at a police checkpoint near Khalis, 50 miles north of
Baghdad.
(AP, 10/2/07)(SFC, 10/3/07, p.A3)

2007 Oct 4, A British soldier
was killed in an explosion about 19 miles west of Kandahar city. 82
British personnel, including 57 soldiers, have been killed in
Afghanistan since operations began there in November 2001.
(AP, 10/5/07)

2007 Oct 6, The Stirling Prize,
Britain's most prestigious architecture prize, was awarded to
Germany's Museum of Modern Literature. The classically influenced
building designed by David Chipperfield Architects, opened last year
in Marbach, southwest Germany.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 6, In London the New
Economics Foundation think-tank said the world moved today into
"ecological overdraft," the point at which human consumption exceeds
the ability of the earth to sustain it in any year and goes into the
red. If everyone in the world had the same consumption rates as in
the US it would take 5.3 planet earths to support them, NEF said,
noting that the figure was 3.1 for France and Britain, 3.0 for
Spain, 2.5 for Germany and 2.4 for Japan.
(Reuters, 10/6/07)

2007 Oct 7, Qatar's Diar real
estate investment company announced it has agreed to buy phase two
of the Grosvenor Waterside residential development in the upmarket
London district of Chelsea.
(AP, 10/7/07)

2007 Oct 8, PM Gordon Brown
said that Britain will cut its troop levels in Iraq to 2,500 in
early 2008, trimming the force by nearly half. Britain ended up
postponing the withdrawal amid a spike in militia violence.
(AP, 10/8/07)(AP, 10/8/08)
2007 Oct 8, British postal
workers started a second 48-hour strike as a dispute over pay and
restructuring remained unresolved.
(AP, 10/8/07)

2007 Oct 9, Britainís Labor
Party announce a decision to raise capital gains taxes to a flat 18%
from an effective 10% on most business assets as of April 2008.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.71)(http://tinyurl.com/37mapa)

2007 Oct 11, Doris Lessing,
British author of dozens of works from short stories to science
fiction, including the classic "The Golden Notebook," won the Nobel
Prize for literature. She was praised by the judges for her
"skepticism, fire and visionary power."
(AP, 10/11/07)

2007 Oct 12, A consortium
headed by Richard Branson and his Virgin Group Ltd. submitted a
proposal to Northern Rock PLC for an equity swap that would see the
struggling mortgage lender rebranded as Virgin Money.
(AP, 10/12/07)

2007 Oct 16, Barbara West
Dainton (96), believed to be one of the last two survivors from the
sinking of the Titanic in 1912, died in Camborne, England.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2007 Oct 16, British actress
Deborah Kerr (86) died. She shared one of cinema's most famous
kisses with Burt Lancaster in "From Here to Eternity" (1953).
(AP, 10/18/07)

2007 Oct 18,
The head of the British Broadcasting Corp. announced budget
cuts that will lead to a net loss of 1,800 jobs.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18,
London's Science Museum canceled talk by Nobel Prize-winning
geneticist James Watson after the co-discoverer of DNA's structure
told a newspaper that Africans and Europeans had different levels of
intelligence.
(AP, 10/18/07)

2007 Oct 21,
Thousands of British Muslims gathered for a charity peace
concert dubbed "Muslim Live 8" to raise money for victims of Sudan's
long-running Darfur conflict.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 21, South Africa beat
England (15-6) in the Rugby World Cup Final at the Stade France in
Paris.
(AFP, 10/23/07)

2007 Oct 23,
In London a Quran written in 1203, believed to be the oldest
known complete copy, sold for more than $2.3 million at an auction.
A nearly complete, 10th-century Kufic Quran, thought to be from
North Africa or the near East, sold $1,870,000.
(AP, 10/24/07)

2007 Oct 26, A British soldier
was convicted at a court martial of his part in a plot to smuggle
guns out of Iraq and sell them to colleagues at his unit's base in
Germany. Lance Corporal Anthony Creswick was involved in selling
illegal pistols bought on the black market in Basra.
(AFP, 10/26/07)

2007 Oct 28, In London a media
report said US financial services group GMAC will lead a rescue bid
for stricken bank Northern Rock.
(AP, 10/28/07)

2007 Oct 30, In London Saudi
Arabia's King Abdullah received a lavish welcome from Queen
Elizabeth II as he started a state visit amid angry protests and
headlines after accusing Britain of anti-terrorism failures. The
Policy Exchange, an independent think tank, said Agencies linked to
the Saudi government have distributed extremist literature to
mosques and Islamic centers in Britain.
(AP, 10/30/07)

2007 Oct 31, In London King
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia met PM Gordon Brown to discuss Middle East
issues and counter-terrorism, amid a swirl of protests.
(AP, 10/31/07)

2007 Nov 1, London's
Metropolitan Police force was convicted of breaching health and
safety laws in the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, a
Brazilian, who officers mistook for a suicide bomber on July 22,
2005.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, In Italy Meredith
Kercher (21), a British university student, was killed [see Nov 2].
(AP, 12/5/09)

2007 Nov 2, In England a
massive fire at a vegetable packing warehouse in Atherstone On
Stour, near Stratford-upon-Avon, left one fire fighter dead and 3
missing.
(AFP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 2, In Italy Meredith
Kercher (21), a British university student, was found dead with her
throat slashed in the bedroom of a house in the central city of
Perugia. A week later 3 suspects in the murder were remanded in
custody by an Italian investigating magistrate. On Nov 19 police in
Perugia identified a 4th suspect as Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory
Coast native. Guede was arrested in Germany the next day and DNA
evidence confirmed that he had sex with Kercher the night she was
stabbed. In 2009 roommate Amanda Knox, of Seattle, Wa., was
convicted and sentenced to 26 years in prison. The court also
convicted Knox's co-defendant and former boyfriend, Italian Raffaele
Sollecito, and gave him a 25-year jail term for the murder. Rudy
Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast citizen, had already been convicted in
the murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 11/2/07)(AFP, 11/10/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(AP,
11/22/07)(AP, 12/5/09)

2007 Nov 4, Welshman Joe
Calzaghe confirmed his status as boxing's best super-middleweight by
unanimously outpointing Denmark's Mikkel Kessler in a triple world
title fight at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
(AFP, 11/4/07)

2007 Nov 8, Samina Malik (23),
who called herself the "Lyrical Terrorist" and penned poems with
titles including "How To Behead," became the first woman to be
convicted under Britainís terrorism legislation. In December she was
given a suspended 9-month prison sentence and community service.
(AFP, 11/8/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.67)
2007 Nov 8, Britainís Privy
Council ruled that Prince Jefri Bolkiah (53) of Brunei must transfer
ownership of 2 US hotels and 3 residences in Los Angeles, London and
Paris along with a trust fund to the Brunei Investment Agency. Jefri
had failed to return assets in a 2000 agreement to settle
accusations of embezzlement.
(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.A31)(http://tinyurl.com/39fvcf)

2007 Nov 13, Britainís
government said an outbreak of bird flu in eastern England is the
deadly H5N1 strain of the disease. A two-mile protection zone and a
six-mile surveillance zone were created around the infected farm in
Suffolk.
(AP, 11/13/07)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.67)

2007 Nov 14, The final stage of
the cross-Channel high-speed rail service opened for business from
the newly rebuilt St. Pancras station in London.
(SFC, 11/28/07, p.E2)(www.raileurope.com)

2007 Nov 18, British ambassador
Andrew Anderson said Algeria has formally demanded the extradition
from Britain of former Algerian bank chief Rafik Khalifa, sentenced
to life over a massive embezzlement scandal.
(AP, 11/18/07)

2007 Nov 20, British Treasury
chief Alistair Darling revealed a lapse at Britain's tax and customs
service regarding missing computer disks with details of 25 million
British individuals and 7.25 million families claiming child
benefit. There were gasps from lawmakers when Darling described the
scale of the loss.
(AP, 11/21/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.24)
2007 Nov 20, The British
government announced that the legal age of sexual consent in
Northern Ireland will be lowered to 16 in line with the rest of the
United Kingdom.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, A British Puma
helicopter crashed southeast of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and
seriously injuring two others. A sophisticated roadside bomb killed
a US soldier and an Iraqi interpreter and wounded three other
soldiers on patrol in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 11/21/07)

2007 Nov 21, PM Gordon Brown
tried to reassure Britons their personal details were safe after the
one of the biggest security breaches in the country's history left
millions of people exposed to identity theft and bank fraud.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 21, Two British
teenagers (16) faced up to three years in jail after a Ghanaian
court found them guilty of smuggling 6 kg (13 lbs) of cocaine. The
teenagers, who pleaded not guilty, had told British TV they were
tricked into carrying the bags by male acquaintances in Ghana and
Britain and did not know their content. In 2008 the 2 girls were
sentenced to one year in jail to include time already served. They
were released on July 17, 2008.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)(AP, 1/23/08)(AFP, 7/17/08)

2007 Nov 26, Peter Watt, the
general secretary of Britainís Labor Party, resigned after admitting
that he knew of an arrangement in which David Abrahams, a north-east
property developer, had donated money to the party through
intermediaries since 2003. PM Brown claimed not to have known of the
arrangement and promised to return the money.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.69)

2007 Nov 27, Russiaís Gazprom
made clear its interest in buying a half share of TNK-BP and any
large UK power company that may come up for sale, while repeating
its warning that wholesale gas prices could rise sharply in Europe
next year.
(www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/nov/28/bp.oil)

2007 Nov 29, The European
Parliament voted to allow Britain and Ireland to keep some of their
old imperial measurements so pubs can still serve pints and road
signs can show miles instead of kilometers.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, Gillian Gibbons,
the British teacher arrested in Sudan on Nov 25 for insulting Islam
by allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad," was
sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation. She avoided the more
serious punishment of 40 lashes. Gibbons was pardoned after spending
more than a week in custody; she then left the country.
(AP, 11/30/07)(AP, 11/29/08)

2007 Dec 1, The Times reported
that Jonathan Evans, the head of Britain's domestic security
service, has warned business leaders that China has been carrying
out state-sponsored espionage against vital parts of the economy.
(AFP, 12/1/07)

2007 Dec 3, Artist Mark
Wallinger won Britain's prestigious Turner Prize for a fiercely
anti-war exhibit based on a lone protester's six-year vigil outside
British parliament.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, The Bank of England
under governor Mervyn King brought down its base interest rate by a
quarter point to 5.5%.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.65)

2007 Dec 5, British police
arrested John Darwin (57) on fraud charges, five years after he
vanished in an apparent canoeing accident in the North Sea, only to
reappear last weekend, claiming he had amnesia.
(AP, 12/5/07)

2007 Dec 9, Anne Darwin, whose
husband is accused of faking his own death in an insurance scam, was
arrested upon her return to Britain from Panama on suspicion of
fraud. Police said Darwin masterminded an elaborate fraud to pay off
family debts.
(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 9, Maj. Gen. Jalil
Khalaf, the police chief of Basra, said religious vigilantes have
killed at least 40 women this year there because of how they
dressed. A roadside bomb struck a convoy carrying Brig. Gen. Qais
al-Maamouri, the police chief of Babil, the provincial capital of
Hillah, a predominantly Shiite province south of Baghdad, killing
him and two of his bodyguards. British PM Gordon Brown flew into
southern Iraq to rally troops and confirm that Iraqi forces will
take command of the last region under British control in
mid-December.
(AP, 12/9/07)(AP, 12/10/07)

2007 Dec 10, In London Led
Zeppelin performed their first full concert in nearly three decades.
Three surviving members, singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page
and bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones, were joined by the late
John Bonham's son Jason on drums.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 10, Afghan and
international forces retook the southern town of Musa Qala, held by
Taliban militants since February. A Taliban spokesman said the
militants fled to avoid civilian and Taliban casualties. In Sangin
district Afghan police clashed with a group of Taliban militants,
leaving 15 militants dead and 11 others wounded. An Afghan army
helicopter crashed in central Afghanistan because of bad weather,
killing four people. British PM Gordon Brown stopped in at Camp
Bastion, the main British camp in Helmand province.
(AP, 12/10/07)(AFP, 12/10/07)

2007 Dec 12, Russia ordered a
British cultural organization to suspend all of its operations
outside Moscow at the beginning of 2008, the latest move in a
long-running dispute. Russian officials accused the British Council,
a non-governmental organization that acts as the cultural department
of the British Embassy, of operating illegally in St. Petersburg and
Yekaterinburg.
(AP, 12/12/07)

2007 Dec 14, Britainís
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) confirmed
a new case of the livestock disease bluetongue in a cow
imported from Germany, two months after an earlier outbreak was said
to have been contained.
(AFP, 12/14/07)

2007 Dec 16, British forces
formally handed over responsibility for Basra, the last region in
Iraq under their control, marking the start of what Britain hopes
will be a transition to a mission aimed at aiding the economy and
providing jobs in an oil-rich region beset by militia infighting. A
total of 174 British personnel have died in Iraq since the March
2003 invasion. The venture cost Britain some $10 billion.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.94)(AP, 12/16/08)

2007 Dec 21, Former British PM
Tony Blair left the Church of England and converted to Catholicism,
the faith of his wife and children.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 21, The British pound
hit an historic low against the euro owing to heightened
expectations of cuts to British interest rates in 2008.
(AP, 12/21/07)

2007 Dec 26, Britainís Daily
Telegraph newspaper reported that British intelligence agents held
secret talks with Taliban leaders on several occasions this year.
Earlier this month, British PM Gordon Brown ruled out direct talks
with Taliban insurgents, telling the House of Commons: "I make it
clear that we will not enter into any negotiations with these
people."
(AFP, 12/26/07)

2007 The painting ďWhite
Canoe," by British artist Peter Doig, sold for $11.2 million, a
record for a living European artist.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.91)
2007 Robin Aitken authored ďCan
We Trust the BBC."
(WSJ, 5/5/07, p.P10)
2007 Michael Billington
authored ďBritish Theater since 1945."
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.100)
2007 Kate Colquhoun authored
ďTaste: The Story of Britain through its Food."
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.89)
2007 John Major, former British
prime minister, authored ďMore Than a Game: The Story of Cricketís
Early Years."
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.97)

2007 Global wind power amounted
to about 1,200 megawatts with Denmark accounting for about a third
and Britain in 2nd place with 400 megawatts.
(WSJ, 11/29/07, p.B2)

2008 Jan 1, Britain defied a
Russian order to close the regional offices of its cultural arm from
New Year's day, but there was no evidence of Russian attempts to
forcibly close British Council centers.
(Reuters, 1/1/08)

2008 Jan 2, Sterling slumped to
a record low against the euro after the release of weak British
economic data that raised expectations of further interest rate cuts
by the Bank of England.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 2, George MacDonald
Fraser (82), English author of the "Flashman" series of historical
adventure yarns, died. "Flashman," published in 1969, introduced
readers to an enduring literary antihero: the roguish, irrepressible
Harry Flashman. Fraserís work also included over 30 movie scripts
including ďThe Three Musketeers" (1973).
(AP, 1/3/08)(WSJ, 1/17/08, p.D7)(Econ, 1/12/08,
p.78)

2008 Jan 7, Britainís PM Gordon
Brown announced plans for a new national screening program to combat
some of the country's biggest killer diseases.
(AP, 1/7/08)

2008 Jan 8, Britainís PM Gordon
Brown said that he wants a 3-year public sector pay deal, rather
than the traditional annual deals, to control inflation and maintain
economic stability.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 8, Britain's Royal
Mail issued a set of stamps commemorating James Bond to mark 100
years since the birth of his creator, Ian Fleming.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 8, Sohail Qureshi
(29), a dentist, was jailed in London after admitting planning to
travel to Pakistan to carry out unspecified acts of terrorism.
Qureshi, who was sentenced to four and a half years, was detained at
London Heathrow Airport in October 2006 carrying thousands of pounds
in cash, as well as a night sight, medical supplies and computer
material.
(AFP, 1/8/08)

2008 Jan 9, British police and
animal welfare authorities rescued 84 neglected horses from a farm
where they had found 31 dead horses, ponies and donkeys.
(AP, 1/9/08)
2008 Jan 9, Sir John Harvey
Jones, British corporate manager and TV star, died. He served as
chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) from 1982-1987. In
1990 he became the presenter of the pioneering BBC TV show
ďTroubleshooter" (1990-1992) which ďaimed to interest the general
public in the nitty-gritty of running a business." From 1989 to 1994
he served as chairman of The Economist.
(Econ, 1/19/08, p.94)

2008 Jan 10, Britainís
government unveiled a new energy policy, which included a decision
to support the building of new nuclear-power stations.
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.49)
2008 Jan 10, British media
reports said 3 swans found dead on a nature reserve in south-west
England have tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(AFP, 1/10/08)

2008 Jan 11, Liverpool launches
its year as European Capital of Culture with events including a
musical about its past and future starring ex-Beatle Ringo Starr.
(AFP, 1/11/08)

2008 Jan 14, The British
government said all visitors to Britain requiring visas will have to
be fingerprinted starting today.
(AP, 1/14/08)
2008 Jan 14, Russiaís Foreign
Ministry said no more visas will be issued for new British Council
expatriate employees in Saint Petersburg and Yekaterinburg,
accreditation renewals for existing employees will be blocked and a
tax inquiry will be launched against the Saint Petersburg office
after a British cultural organization reopened offices in defiance
of an order to close. Russia last month ordered the closure of the
two regional offices of the British Council, a nonprofit
organization that acts as the cultural arm of the British Embassy,
saying they were operating illegally.
(AFP, 1/14/08)(AP, 1/14/08)
2008 Jan 14, Pakistani security
forces killed 23 Taliban fighters and lost seven of their own men
during clashes, while a Taliban spokesman said 17 troopers were
captured. Six British detectives left Pakistan bound for London with
evidence collected from their investigation into the assassination
of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
(Reuters, 1/14/08)(AP, 1/14/08)

2008 Jan 15, Britain and Russia
traded threats and recrimination as a diplomatic feud over the role
of the British government's cultural arm worsened.
(Reuters, 1/15/08)

2008 Jan 16, A British cultural
organization accused Russian authorities of harassing its staff and
said it had temporarily closed its offices in St. Petersburg.
(AP, 1/17/08)

2008 Jan 17, Britain accused
Russia of "conduct not worthy of a great country" after what it
called a campaign of intimidation by security services forced its
cultural centers in two Russian cities to halt operations.
(AP, 1/17/08)
2008 Jan 17, A British Airways
jet from Beijing carrying 152 people crash-landed, injuring 19
people and causing more than 200 flights to be canceled at Europe's
busiest airport.
(AP, 1/17/08)

2008 Jan 18, British PM Gordon
Brown brought a high-profile delegation of business leaders to China
for a visit focused on expanding economic ties between the
countries. Brown began a major effort to position Britain as China's
premier international business partner, offering London as a base
for distribution of the Asian nation's state fund for private
investment.
(AP, 1/18/08)

2008 Jan 20, Britain's PM
Gordon Brown arrived in India hailing relations between the two
countries as a "partnership of equals" as he looked to further boost
links.
(AP, 1/20/08)

2008 Jan 24, In Britain almost
two dozen Romanians were arrested after police swooped on a child
slave gang.
(Reuters, 1/24/08)

2008 Jan 25, Scottish &
Newcastle, the UK's largest brewer, announced it has agreed to be
bought by Carlsberg and Heineken, for around 7.6 billion pounds.
(AFP, 1/25/08)

2008 Jan 29, Gold prices hit a
record high 933.33 dollars in London as the market was driven higher
by production problems in key producer South Africa and the weak US
dollar.
(AFP, 1/29/08)

2008 Feb 5, British scientists
said they have created human embryos containing DNA from two women
and a man in a procedure that researchers hope might be used one day
to produce embryos free of inherited diseases.
(AP, 2/5/08)

2008 Feb 6, PM Gordon Brown
announced that evidence gathered through wiretapping will be allowed
in British courts for the first time under proposals aimed at
bringing more terrorism suspects to justice.
(AP, 2/6/08)

2008 Feb 8, Scotland Yard
released a report saying that Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir
Bhutto died as a result of a suicide bomb blast, not a gunshot. The
findings supported the Pakistani government's version of the events.
(AP, 2/8/08)

2008 Feb 10, In northern Iraq
car bombs and gunmen struck new US allies, police and civilians. At
least 80 people were reported killed or found dead in a spasm of
violence that coincided with a visit by US Defense Secretary Robert
Gates to Baghdad. A US soldier was killed in a roadside bombing. 8
masked gunmen wielding machine guns stormed the Sultan Palace Hotel
in Basra and seized a British reporter and his Iraqi interpreter.
Richard Butler was seized in Basra with his translator and held
hostage for two months. Butler was rescued on April 14. In 2011 the
Iraqi central criminal court issued a 15-year prison sentence
against a defendant for kidnapping the British journalist Richard
Butler.
(AP, 2/11/08)(SFC, 2/11/08, p.A14)(AP,
2/12/08)(AFP, 7/2/11)

2008 Feb 11, In London the
price of platinum struck an historic high nearing $1,900 on supply
disruptions caused by power shortages in South Africa, the white
metal's biggest producer.
(AP, 2/11/08)

2008 Feb 12, England's
commissioner for children and a civil liberties group joined in on a
campaign to ban high-frequency devices intended to drive misbehaving
children away from shops and other areas.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, Badri
Patarkatsishvili (52), a Georgian tycoon, was found dead in his
mansion near London. Police said they were treating the death as
suspicious. He had claimed he was the target of assassination plot
after helping lead anti-government protests in his homeland. He had
built his fortune in Russia, where he became Berezovsky's business
partner. However, the two men claimed in British court documents
that the Russian government forced them to sell their stakes in oil
company Sibneft, Russian Aluminum and television channel ORT for a
fraction of their value. Interim tests indicated that
Patarkatsishvili died of natural causes.
(AP, 2/13/08)(AP, 2/14/08)

2008 Feb 14, In London the
price of platinum soared past 2,000 dollars an ounce to a record as
power shortages affected mining production in South Africa, the
biggest supplier of the white precious metal.
(AP, 2/14/08)

2008 Feb 19, In England Karen
Matthews reported that her daughter was missing in the Yorkshire
town of Dewsbury. Shannon (9) was found safely 24 days later in the
base of a divan bed at the flat of Michael Donovan. On Dec 4 Karen
Matthews (33) and Michael Donovan (40) were found guilty of
kidnapping. The mother allegedly hoped to scoop the reward money
when the girl was found.
(AP, 12/4/08)

2008 Feb 21, In London Steve
Wright (49) was found guilty of murdering five prostitutes in a
killing spree which brought terror to the English market town of
Ipswitch in 2006.
(AFP, 2/21/08)

2008 Feb 24, The first flight
by a commercial airline to be partly powered by biofuels took off
from London on a short trip to Amsterdam billed as heralding a new
eco-friendlier era of airline travel.
(AFP, 2/24/08)
2008 Feb 24, Pearl Cornioley,
British spy (nom de guerre was Genevieve Touzalin), died. She
parachuted into France during WWII posing as a cosmetics saleswoman
to deliver coded messages to Resistance members.
(AP, 4/1/08)

2008 Feb 25, Police on the
Channel Island of Jersey, where a child's buried remains were found,
widened their search for bodies to six more sites in and around Haut
de la Garenne, a former children's home.
(AFP, 2/25/08)

2008 Feb 26, Mohammed Hamid
(50), a man who dubbed himself "Osama bin London" was found guilty
by a British court of organizing extremist training camps and
soliciting murder.
(AFP, 2/26/08)

2008 Feb 29, The British
military decided to pull Prince Harry out of Afghanistan
"immediately" after news of his deployment leaked out in foreign
media.
(AP, 2/29/08)

2008 Mar 3, Colin Norris (32),
convicted of killing four elderly patients in northern England with
insulin overdoses, was sentenced to life in prison. must serve at
least 30 years before being eligible for parole. Norris was arrested
in December 2002 but not charged until 2005.
(AP, 3/4/08)

2008 Mar 6, Britain unveiled a
timetable for the introduction of controversial biometric identity
cards, starting with non-European foreigners who will be obliged to
have them from later this year.
(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 6, In Britain the
Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said that up to 700
hundred personnel of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) had
begun a 24-hour stoppage in response to poor pay conditions and
below-inflation wage increases over the past few years.
(AFP, 3/6/08)

2008 Mar 7, Francis Pym (86),
former Northern Ireland secretary (1973-74) under Edward Heath, died
after a long illness. He also served as former PM Margaret
Thatcherís foreign secretary during the Falklands War (1982) but was
fired in 1983 and became a Thatcher antagonist.
(AP, 3/8/08)

2008 Mar 11, The Bank of
England said it would inject a further 10 billion pounds into money
markets amid the ongoing credit crunch.
(AP, 3/11/08)

2008 Mar 17, A judge awarded
Heather Mills a total of $48.6 million in the financial settlement
of her divorce from former Beatle Paul McCartney. This was a fifth
of what she had demanded.
(AP, 3/17/08)(Econ, 3/22/08, p.65)

2008 Mar 18, A British judge
ruled against Exxon Mobil Corp., tossing out an order to freeze $12
billion in assets belonging to Venezuela's state oil company in a
case that stemmed from the nationalization of a project last year.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 18, The world's
biggest passenger plane, Airbus's A380, touched down in London on
its first commercial flight to Europe facing questions from green
groups over its eco-friendly billing.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, Anthony Minghella
(54), Oscar winning British director, died. He turned such literary
works as "The English Patient," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold
Mountain" into acclaimed movies.
(AP, 3/18/08)

2008 Mar 19, Arthur C. Clarke
(b.1917), English-born science fiction writer, died in Sri Lanka.
Clarke wrote or collaborated on close to 100 books and had moved to
Sri Lanka in 1956.
(AP, 3/19/08)(SFC, 3/19/08, p.A2)
2008 Mar 19, Philip Jones
Griffiths (72), Welsh-born photojournalist, died. He spent years
traveling across Vietnam to capture the effects of the war on its
people.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 19, Paul Scofield
(b.1922), towering British stage actor, died. He won international
fame and an Academy Award for the film "A Man for All Seasons," in
which he played Sir Thomas More.
(AP, 3/20/08)

2008 Mar 20, The Bank of
England said it would inject 5.0 billion pounds into short-term
money markets every week until April 9.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, In southern
Afghanistan security forces said an exchange of fire between British
soldiers and police left a policeman dead and two men wounded from
each side.
(AFP, 3/20/08)

2008 Mar 25, Auctioneers said
the painting "La Surprise" (~1718) by French artist Jean-Antoine
Watteau, missing for 200 years, has been found in a British country
house and could now sell for up to five million pounds.
(AFP, 3/25/08)

2008 Mar 26, It was reported
that British pig husbandry is in crisis due to exploding global
grain prices. Last month British pig farmers recorded ďStand By Your
Ham" based on the 1968 US country classic ďStand By Your Man" by
Tammy Wynette.
(WSJ, 3/26/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 26, French Pres.
Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to open a new chapter in ties with Britain as
he arrived for a state visit which he hopes will also help repair
his image as a statesman.
(AP, 3/26/08)

2008 Mar 28, British Airways
Plc cancelled a fifth of flights from its new $8.6 billion terminal
at London's Heathrow airport as chaos from its shambolic opening
spilled into a second day.
(AP, 3/28/08)

2008 Mar 29, British Airways
said that it was canceling more flights to and from London Heathrow
airport's new Terminal 5 for a third day running because of
logistical problems.
(AFP, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 29, Angus Fairhurst
(b.1966), one of the group of "Young British Artists" who stormed
the international art scene in the 1990s, died of suicide during a
walk in Scotland.
(AP, 4/1/08)

2008 Mar 30, British Airways
cancelled another batch of flights as it struggled to cope with a
massive backlog of luggage at London Heathrow airport's new
multi-billion-pound Terminal 5.
(AP, 3/30/08)

2008 Mar 31, Some of England's
most sacred soil was disturbed for the first time in more than four
decades as archaeologists worked to solve the enduring riddle of
Stonehenge: When and why was the prehistoric monument built?
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, A clash in
southern Afghanistan killed a Danish soldier and wounded two others.
A separate attack on a NATO patrol killed two British troops. an
airstrike killed three men irrigating land close to a road in
Kandahar province. The men may have been mistaken for militants
planting roadside bombs. In Helmand province police arrested Mullah
Naqibullah, a senior Taliban commander who has escaped twice from
Afghan prisons. Naqibullah was nabbed during a clash that left three
insurgents dead.
(AP, 3/31/08)(AP, 4/1/08)

2008 Apr 1, Britainís border
agency (UKBA) was formed following the dismemberment 2007 of the
Home Office.
(Econ, 11/12/11,
p.64)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Border_Agency)

2008 Apr 4, In London a
prosecutor told a court that Assad Sarwar (27), a man accused of
plotting to down trans-Atlantic airliners, was also developing plans
to cripple nuclear power stations, a European gas pipeline and
Britain's electricity grid.
(AP, 4/5/08)

2008 Apr 5, British PM Gordon
Brown called the current global economic crisis the largest
challenge of its kind in centuries while addressing some of the
world's key decision makers at a summit on climate change, the
economy and global poverty.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 5, London Heathrow
airport's new Terminal 5 was hit by fresh flights disruption when
the baggage system suffered a major software problem.
(AP, 4/5/08)

2008 Apr 7, In London a
coroner's jury decided that Diana and Dodi Fayed were unlawfully
killed due to reckless speed and drinking by their driver, and by
the reckless pursuit of vehicles chasing them, not as part of a
murder conspiracy.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 7, In London Oleg
Gordievsky, a double agent who became the most senior Soviet spy to
defect to the West during the Cold War, said that he became sick
after taking the pills at his home in southern England on Oct. 31.
(AP, 4/7/08)

2008 Apr 8, English Channel
tunnel operator Groupe Eurotunnel SA reported profits of $1.57
million for 2007, its first annual net profit, less than a year
after the company nearly drowned in debt.
(AP, 4/8/08)

2008 Apr 10, The Bank of
England cut its key interest rate .25% to five%, balancing the risks
of rising near-term inflation and economic slowdown spread by the
credit crisis.
(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 10, The West's last
remaining feudal system came to an end after the Privy Council
endorsed a vote by locals on the tiny Channel Island of Sark to
change the way they are governed.
(Reuters, 4/10/08)

2008 Apr 11, Sabeel Ahmed (26),
a doctor originally from Bangalore in India, pleaded guilty to
withholding information from police about the June 29, 2007, attack
at Glasgow airport. His brother died after a failed suicide car
bombing at the airport.
(AFP, 4/11/08)

2008 Apr 12, In Ecuador 5 young
British women were killed in a bus crash while the 15 other people
on board were injured.
(AFP, 4/13/08)

2008 Apr 14, Richard Butler, a
kidnapped British journalist, was rescued by Iraqi troops after two
months in captivity in Basra. A roadside bomb in downtown Baghdad
killed five people and wounded nine. In northern Iraq 18 people were
killed in two car bombings and a suicide attack. The US military
said it will release Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein,
more than two years after he was detained by US Marines on
suspicions of links to insurgents. The military said it has
determined Hussein is not a threat and plans to free him Apr 16.
(AP, 4/14/08)(AP, 4/15/08)

2008 Apr 14, In London Nepalese
Gurkha soldiers demonstrated outside a landmark immigration tribunal
which could decide if 2,000 veterans who fought for Britain can
settle here.
(AFP, 4/15/08)

2008 Apr 16, Britainís PM
Gordon Brown, on the first of a 3-day visit to the US, met with
bankers to discuss solutions to the credit crisis.
(WSJ, 4/17/08, p.A12)

2008 Apr 21,
The Bank of England announced a 50-billion-pound plan, the
special Liquidity Scheme, to free up Britain's home loan market in
one of the biggest moves by a major central bank to combat the
global credit crunch.
(AFP, 4/21/08)(Econ, 4/26/08, p.96)

2008 Apr 24, Britain's foreign
secretary held talks with Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki. PM al-Maliki
said all political blocs have agreed to return to the government. At
least 13 people were reported killed in the ongoing fighting between
Shiite militiamen and Iraqi and US-led forces. A US soldier was
killed in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad.
(AP, 4/24/08)(AP, 4/25/08)(WSJ, 4/25/08, p.A1)

2008 Apr 24, In England police
in Leeds found Damien Oldfield (33) stabbed to death. Anthony Morley
(36) attacked Damien Oldfield (33) during a night the pair spent
together at Morley's home. Morley slit Oldfield's throat as he lay
in his bed, stabbed him repeatedly and cooked some of his flesh. On
Oct 20 Morley was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison.
(AP, 10/20/08)(http://tinyurl.com/6nw7hx)

2008 Apr, In southern England
Isa Ibrahim (19), a British Muslim convert, was arrested for
planning a bomb attack at the Broadmead shopping mall in Bristol. In
2009 he was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in jail.
(AP, 7/17/09)

2008 May 2, Britain's ruling
Labor Party suffered its worst local election defeat on record.
Labor won 24% of the votes, a warning to PM Brown that he must fix
Britainís credit crunch.
(AP, 5/2/08)(WSJ, 5/3/08, p.A1)

2008 May 3, Early results
showed Boris Johnson defeating Ken Livingstone as mayor of London.
Voters also picked opposition candidates in more than 300 municipal
council races, prompting PM Brown to humbly pledge to heed the
scathing verdict.
(AP, 5/3/08)

2008 May 7, London's new mayor
Boris Johnson announced a ban on alcohol on the capital's transport
system, as part of a wider clampdown on crime and anti-social
behavior.
(AP, 5/7/08)

2008 May 19, British lawmakers
voted to approve controversial plans to allow the use of
animal-human embryos for research.
(AP, 5/19/08)

2008 May 20, British PM Gordon
Brown urged rich countries to end agricultural subsidies, and said
he will press for a global trade agreement to help the world's
poorest farmers escape poverty.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, The Dalai Lama
began an 11-day visit to Britain, including talks with PM Gordon
Brown who faces a delicate balancing act between supporting Tibetan
rights while not offending China.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, Ian Shuttleworth
(42), a former British police officer, was arrested in Bangkok in an
international crackdown on a sex trafficking ring that saw nine
Thais detained last month in London. He was arrested at his
apartment in downtown Bangkok, where he had set up a security
company providing bodyguards to Thailand's elite. He is accused of
luring Thai women into prostitution by promising them well-paid
restaurant jobs in London, and then selling them to a madam.
(AFP, 5/21/08)

2008 May 21, In Moscow, Russia,
Manchester United prevailed over Chelsea in the soccer final of the
Champions League.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.77)

2008 May 22, Britainís PM
Gordon Brown called for a total ban on the use of cluster bombs by
the British military. Nicky Reilly, would-be suicide bomber, tried
to detonate a nail bomb in a restaurant in Exeter but injured only
himself. He had embraced Islam between 2002 and 2003 and called
himself Mohammad Rashid Saeed Alim. In 2009 Reilly (22) was
sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in prison.
(AFP, 5/22/08)(AP, 1/30/09)

2008 May 24, In England Rob
Knox (18), teenage actor who had a part in the next Harry Potter
film, was stabbed and killed in a scuffle outside a bar. Karl Bishop
(21), from Sidcup in Kent, was accused of the murder. On March 4,
2009, Bishop was convicted of murder. The next day he was sentenced
to life in prison.
(AFP, 5/27/08)(AP, 3/5/09)

2008 Jun 4, British officials
said an outbreak of the H7 strain of bird flu at a farm in central
England is "highly pathogenic." All the chickens on the farm were
slaughtered following detection of the virus in Banbury,
Oxfordshire.
(AFP, 6/4/08)

2008 Jun 6, A judge at City of
Westminster Magistrates Court said 4 men: Vincent Bajinya, also
known as Doctor Vincent Brown, Charles Munyaneza, Celestin
Ugirashebuja and Emmanuel Nteziryayo, should be sent back to Rwanda
for trial for their involvement in the 1994 genocide.
(AFP, 6/6/08)

2008 Jun 8, In Afghanistan the
body of Abdul Samad Rohani (25), an Afghan reporter for the BBC, was
found in Helmand province. 3 British paratroopers were killed in
Helmand province in a suicide bomb attack, bringing total British
military deaths in Afghanistan since 2001 to 100.
(AFP, 6/8/08)(AP, 6/9/08)

2008 Jun 9, British constable
Ian Terry (32), a father of two from Burnley, was fatally shot by a
colleague during a training exercise in a disused warehouse in
Manchester. An inquest in 2010 found he had been unlawfully killed.
In 2012 the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said Greater
Manchester police and two of the force's officers will be prosecuted
over the death of the constable.
(AFP, 3/7/12)
2008 Jun 9, Some 32 common
dolphins were found beached in and around a creek off the Percuil
River, near Falmouth, England. Some were rescued, but 26 dolphins
suffered painful, protracted deaths. 2 days later a marine animal
protection group said the dolphins may have been killed after
becoming disoriented by British navy sonar exercises.
(AP, 6/11/08)

2008 Jun 10, The British
government published its annual poverty figures. They showed a rise
in 2006-07 of 100,000 in the number of children living in poverty to
2.9 million.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.72)

2008 Jun 11, Yeshi Girma (32),
the partner of Hussain Osman, a would-be suicide bomber who
attempted to attack London's subway system, was convicted in London
for not warning police about the July 1, 2005, plot. Her sister and
brother were also both found guilty of failing to disclose
information and helping Osman.
(AP, 6/11/08)

2008 Jun 12, The Bank of
England reported that inflation in May had risen to a record 4.3%.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.71)
2008 Jun 12, Afghanistan's
Pres. Hamid Karzai appealed to world donors in Paris for massive,
long-term aid for police, road-building and agriculture to help make
his country safer and his countrymen less hungry. Donors ranging
from the US the World Bank pledged more than $21 billion for
Afghanistan. 2 British troops were killed by enemy fire while
patrolling the area around their base in the Upper Gereshk Valley.
(AP, 6/12/08)(AP, 6/13/08)(AP, 6/13/08)

2008 Jun 13, In London,
administrators said a takeover deal to rescue small business-class
airline Silverjet has collapsed. The airline employed 370 pilots and
cabin crew and 50 administrative staff in Luton, where it operated
flights to New York and Dubai.
(AFP, 6/13/08)(http://tinyurl.com/56mjgg)

2008 Jun 15, US President
George W. Bush arrived in Britain to hold talks with PM Gordon Brown
on issues including Iraq and Iran's suspect nuclear program. Bush
urged Brown to withdraw forces from Iraq based on conditions on the
ground and not an arbitrary timetable.
(AFP, 6/15/08)(Reuters, 6/15/08)

2008 Jun 16, US President
George W. Bush won Europe's backing for tighter sanctions on Iran
over its nuclear program and secured a British pledge to send more
troops to Afghanistan.
(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 16, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon unveiled an arresting shaft-of-light
memorial in London to journalists killed in the line of work.
(AP, 6/16/08)

2008 Jun 17, Residents and
officials said Taliban militants destroyed bridges and planted mines
in several villages they control outside southern Afghanistan's
largest city in apparent preparation for battle, as some 4,000
people or more fled the Arghandab district 10 miles northwest of
Kandahar city. An explosion elsewhere killed 4 British soldiers in
Helmand province.
(AP, 6/17/08)(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 17, The Rev. Henry
Chadwick (b.1920), a Church of England priest and renowned scholar
of the early centuries of Christianity, died. The first of his many
books was a translation of "Contra Celsum" by Origen of Alexandria,
the third century church father, published in 1953.
(AP, 6/20/08)

2008 Jun 19, It was reported
that Bristol has been designated as Britain's first "cycling city"
as part of a 100 million pound scheme aimed at getting people to
exercise by using bicycles.
(AP, 6/19/08)

2008 Jun 21, Sean Langan (43),
British freelance television journalist, was released by kidnappers
along the Afghan-Pakistan border after being held for 3 months.
Langan has spent the last few years making films about Afghanistan,
Iraq and Zimbabwe, and his documentary "Fighting the Taliban" was
short-listed for a Bafta this year.
(AFP, 6/24/08)

2008 Jun 22, Saudi Arabia held
meeting in Jiddah between oil producing and consuming nations as a
way to show that it was not deaf to international cries that high
oil prices have caused social and economic turmoil. Oil Minister Ali
al-Naimi said Saudi Arabia is willing to produce more oil if
customers need it without citing any specific output increase.
Britainís PM Gordon Brown called for cash-rich Gulf nations to
invest in renewable and nuclear energy production in Britain and
elsewhere.
(AP, 6/22/08)

2008 Jun 25, Queen Elizabeth II
conferred a knighthood on "The Satanic Verses" author Salman
Rushdie, a year after the announcement of the knighthood provoked
protests from the Muslim world.
(AP, 6/25/08)

2008 Jun 26, The Federation of
American Scientists, which studies the US nuclear arsenal, said in a
report that Washington had removed its last atomic bombs from the
British Royal Air Force base at Lakenheath, where they had been
stationed since 1954.
(Reuters, 6/26/08)

2008 Jun 29, Britainís
Glastonbury music festival, begun in 1970, wrapped up with a double
bill of golden oldies following controversy over its first ever
hip-hop headliner, Jay-Z, and troubled star Amy Winehouse.
(AFP, 6/29/08)
2008 Jun 29, The bound and
battered bodies of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23, were
found in a burning ground-floor bedsit (studio) in New Cross,
southeast London. Bonomo was stabbed nearly 200 times while Ferez
suffered around 50 wounds during a prolonged ordeal. The two
scholars, both biochemists from a university in Clermont-Ferrand,
central France, were on a short exchange program at London's
Imperial College. On July 7 Nigel Edward Farmer (33) turned himself
in at a London police station. On July 10 London police arrested a
5th suspect, Daniel Sonnex (23), over the brutal stabbing murders.
Police were also questioning a 35-year-old man and a 25-year-old
woman about the killings. Another man had been arrested but was
released without charge.
(AFP, 7/3/08)(AP, 7/6/08)(AP, 7/10/08)

2008 Jul 2, The British
government said police have arrested more than 500 suspects in a
crackdown on human trafficking in the sex trade. Police made 528
arrests in the operation, codenamed Pentameter 2, after raiding 822
premises, of which 157 were massage parlors and 582 houses and
flats. The operation began in October and involved 55 police forces.
(AFP, 7/2/08)

2008 Jul 7, The Church of
England's ruling body voted its support for women to become bishops
without giving traditionalist supporters of male-only priesthood the
concessions they had sought.
(AP, 7/8/08)

2008 Jul 9, In northwestern
Afghanistan a group of villagers used a machine gun, sticks and
stones to kill two Taliban militants and chase 10 others away.
NATO-led forces in central Logar province killed a Taliban militant
involved with suicide bombing networks. 9 British soldiers were
injured in Helmand province when an Apache helicopter opened fire
after mistaking them for the enemy.
(AP, 7/10/08)

2008 Jul 10, Britons voted in a
by-election triggered when David Davis, a top opposition MP, quit in
protest at government plans to increase the period police can hold
terror suspects before charging them.
(AFP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, Salman Rushdie's
novel "Midnight's Children" was named as the greatest Booker Prize
winner ever, scooping a special "best of the best" award for the
second time.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, The Interfax news
agency, citing a source in Russia's secret services, reported that
the head of the embassy's trade and investment section, Christopher
Bowers, was believed to be a senior British intelligence officer.
(AP, 7/11/08)

2008 Jul 13, Algeriaís
government newspaper El Moudjhaid said a consortium of British-based
oil services company Petrofac and Indonesian engineering company
IKPT provisionally won a contract to build an LNG plant in western
Mediterranean port of Arzew.
(AP, 7/13/08)

2008 Jul 14, Britain vowed to
increase pressure on Zimbabwe's leaders by pushing for tougher EU
sanctions and hunting down their assets around the world, after
failing to secure bolstered UN action.
(AF, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 14, Three British
Muslim men pleaded guilty to conspiring to cause explosions, part of
a plan prosecutors say would have involved smuggling liquid bombs
onto airliners with the intention of blowing them up mid-flight.
(Reuters, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 14, At Britainís
Farnborough International Airshow Etihad Airways, the national
carrier of the United Arab Emirates, said it had agreed to buy 45
Boeing passenger jets worth 9.4 billion dollars (5.9 billion euros).
(AFP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 14, Spain's biggest
bank, Santander, said it had reached agreement to buy British lender
Alliance and Leicester in an all-share deal worth 1.26 billion
pounds (1.57 billion euros) as it continues its push into the
British market.
(AFP, 7/14/08)

2008 Jul 16, Thousands of
British local government employees began a two-day strike over pay.
Unions expected more than half a million workers in England, Wales
and Northern Ireland to join the walkout that began after midnight.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, Anglican bishops
from around the world gathered in Canterbury for the Lambeth
Conference, with the 10-yearly meeting set to be dominated by deep
splits over the roles of women and homosexuals.
(AP, 7/16/08)

2008 Jul 19, Czech police said
a 21-year-old British man, wanted for child sex and pornography
offences in Britain, has been detained in a Prague suburb where he
had been in hiding for two years.
(AFP, 7/19/08)

2008 Jul 20, In Israel British
PM Gordon Brown, on his first official visit as prime minister, said
that economic development was key to bringing peace to the Middle
East. Brown demanded that Israel cease settlement construction and
promised more money to jump-start the battered Palestinian economy.
(AP, 7/20/08)

2008 Jul 21, Eric Dowling
(b.1915), former English POW, died. He was nicknamed "Digger" for
helping excavate tunnels used in the breakout from a World War II
German prison camp that became known as the "Great Escape." Dowling
played a key role in planning the march 24, 1944, escape by 76
prisoners from Stalag Luft III prison near Sagan in eastern Germany
ó now Zagan, Poland.
(AP, 8/7/08)

2008 Jul 24, Hundreds of
Anglican bishops from around the world were among 1,500 people who
marched through central London calling for urgent action to tackle
global poverty.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Max Mosley (68),
motor racing chief and son of Britain's 1930s Fascist leader Oswald
Mosley, won 60,000 pounds ($119,100) in damages at London's High
Court from the News of the World newspaper for breaching his privacy
by reporting details of a German-themed sex session with five
prostitutes.
(Reuters, 7/26/08)

2008 Jul 27, In Antigua
newlyweds Benjamin and Catherine Mullany, both 31, were attacked
inside their cottage at the Cocos Hotel resort in the island's
southwest. Both were shot in the head. Catherine was killed. A
comatose Benjamin was flown back to Britain where he was pronounced
dead on August 3. On August 18 a 20-year old man and 17-year-old
male were taken to a magistrate court in St. John's and were charged
with murder, robbery and receiving stolen goods. The trial of Avie
Howell and Kaniel Martin began June 1, 2011.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/4/08)(AP, 8/19/08)(AP, 6/2/11)

2008 Jul 28, In England
hijackers made off with boxes of blank British passports worth a
fortune on the black market in a raid on a delivery van in the
Manchester suburb of Oldham. British policed later said the
passports were "very secure" as they contained a micro-chip which
had not been activated.
(AFP, 7/29/08)(AP, 7/31/08)

2008 Jul 29, In Britain a Sikh
teenager won a High Court discrimination case against a school which
banned her from classes after she refused to remove a religious
bangle.
(AFP, 7/29/08)

2008 Jul 30, Media watchdog
Ofcom fined the BBC 400,000 pounds, the largest financial penalty it
has ever issued against the public broadcaster, for misleading the
public through fake quizzes and competitions.
(Reuters, 7/30/08)

2008 Aug 9, In northeast
England Xi Zhou and Zhen Xing Yang, both 25, were found murdered
with serious head injuries in Newcastle.
(AFP, 8/11/08)

2008 Aug 10, Welshwoman Nicole
Cooke handed Britain their first gold of the Beijing Olympic Games
when she won the women's cycling road race.
(AP, 8/10/08)

2008 Aug 12, Tesco, the biggest
British retailer, announced plans to open wholesale grocery stores
in India that will supply goods to hypermarkets owned by Indian
conglomerate Tata Group.
(AFP, 8/12/08)

2008 Aug 14, American Airlines,
British Airways and Iberia of Spain said they had signed an
agreement to cooperate over flights between North America and Europe
to help them overcome soaring fuel costs.
(AP, 8/14/08)

2008 Aug 17, Two small planes
collided in midair and crashed near Coventry in central England,
killing five people.
(AP, 8/17/08)

2008 Aug 18, In Britain Philip
Thompson (27), a pedophile who acted as a "librarian" for a global
Internet child abuse ring, was jailed after one of the biggest
undercover police investigations into online abuse.
(Reuters, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 19, Vietnamese
authorities freed British glam rocker Paul Gadd, aka Gary Glitter,
after nearly three years in prison on child molestation charges,
then moved immediately to deport him.
(AP, 8/19/08)(Econ, 8/36/08, p.36)

2008 Aug 21, British PM Gordon
Brown visited Kabul after meeting with British troops in Helmand
province. Brown pledged more support for Afghanistan including 120
million dollars towards a development fund that would include paying
teachers' salaries and 17 million dollars for a radio station in
Helmand. 11 militants reportedly died in a clash in the south.
Afghan and international troops clashed with militants in Khas in
Uruzgan province, killing 11 militants.
(AP, 8/21/08)(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 21, Britain's
government confirmed that a contractor lost a memory device
containing information on every prison inmate in England and Wales.
(AP, 8/22/08)

2008 Aug 22, Aon Corp., the
world's biggest insurance broker, said it has agreed to buy
Britain's Benfield Group Ltd. for almost $1.6 billion in cash.
(AP, 8/22/08)

2008 Aug 24, In London some
40,000 people, including record-breaking swimmer Michael Phelps,
gathered to celebrate 2012 host London taking over from Beijing as
the Olympic city.
(AP, 8/24/08)

2008 Aug 28, Grant Wilkinson
(34) was jailed for life for running Britainís biggest-ever gun
factory which converted dozens of replica submachine guns into
deadly weapons used in nine gangland murders. He legally bought 90
replica Mac-10s in 2004, saying they were for use on the set of the
James Bond film "Casino Royale" and paying 55,000 pounds in cash.
(AFP, 8/28/08)

2008 Aug, Samantha Orobator
(20), a British citizen, was arrested in Laos and charged with
trying to smuggle 1.5 pounds (680 grams) of heroin in her luggage.
In 2009 a government spokesman said she will not face the death
penalty because the law bans executing expectant convicts.
(AP, 5/5/09)

2008 Sep 2, The British
government slashed stamp duty, meaning homes worth up to 175,000
pounds would be exempt from the land sales tax for the next year in
a move aimed at reenergizing the housing market.
(AFP, 9/2/08)

2008 Sep 7, In London an urgent
inquiry was underway after a disc containing the personal details of
5,000 justice staff went missing in yet another embarrassing data
loss blunder. Private contractor EDS told the Prison Service in July
that the hard drive had gone astray. The missing disc was last seen
in July 2007.
(AP, 9/7/08)

2008 Sep 8, In London 3 of 8
British Muslims with ties to Pakistan were found guilty of
conspiracy to murder in a terrorist bombing campaign, but jurors
failed to reach a verdict on whether they plotted to blow up
multiple trans-Atlantic airliners with liquid explosives disguised
as soft drinks. Abdullah Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain
were convicted of trying to make a bomb out of hydrogen peroxide.
(AP, 9/8/08)(SFC, 9/9/08, p.A8)(Econ, 9/13/08,
p.63)

2008 Sep 9, The Iraqi oil
ministry said Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed
to a gas joint venture with Iraq worth up to four billion dollars,
becoming the first Western oil major to gain access to the
violence-wracked country's vast energy reserves.
(AP, 9/9/08)

2008 Sep 12, British and French
firefighters extinguished a 1,000-degree inferno in the Channel
Tunnel but tens of thousands of travelers faced more delay as they
waited for the undersea link to reopen.
(AP, 9/12/08)

2008 Sep 15, In London the sale
of pickled sharks, butterfly paintings and other pieces by Damien
Hirst (43), the provocative British artist, raised some US$127
million. The sale continued the next day. Total sales reached $199
million. In 2009 his total auction sales shrunk to $19 million.
Hirst had taken over Sothebyís London headquarters for his two-day
show ďBeautiful Inside My Head Forever."
(AP, 9/16/08)(Econ, 9/20/08, p.73)(Econ, 9/11/10,
p.99)(Econ, 4/15/17, p.72)
2008 Sep 15, Richard Wright
(65), a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died. Pink
Floyd's spokesman, Doug Wright, who is not related to the artist,
said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain.
The band released a series of commercially and critically successful
albums including 1973's "Dark Side of the Moon," which has sold more
than 40 million copies.
(AP, 9/16/08)

2008 Sep 17, Barclays PLC said
it may pick up some of Lehman Brothers assets and employees in
Europe and Asia, on top of the British bank's deal to acquire key
U.S. operations from the failed investment bank.
(AP, 9/17/08)

2008 Sep 18, HBOS, Britainís
biggest mortgage lender, agreed under government pressure to be
taken over by Lloyds TSB.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.90)

2008 Sep 19, A global recovery
in markets took place after the US took steps to limit damage from a
seize-up in world credit markets following the forced private sale
or government takeover in recent days. The Bank of England offered
to lend an additional 22 billion pounds (40 billion dollars) to
financial institutions struggling to obtain funds amid a worldwide
squeeze on credit.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 19, Hammaad Munshi
(18), said by prosecutors to be the youngest Briton to be convicted
of a terrorism offence, was jailed for two years. He was found
guilty last month of being part of a cell that spread extremist
propaganda and provided practical guides on how to make poisons and
suicide vests.
(Reuters, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 19, David Heiss (21),
German office worker, stabbed Matthew Pyke (20) 86 times in an
attack in Nottingham. He had met Pyke and Joanna Witton, Pykeís
girlfriend, on a war games website, and flew to England after the
couple made disparaging remarks about him. On May 11, 2009, Heiss
was sentenced to life in prison.
(http://news.cnet.com/technically-incorrect/?keyword=David+Heiss)(AFP,
5/11/09)

2008 Sep 24, Britain pledged
26.9 million pounds for drought-hit Ethiopia, where some 9.6 million
people are in need of emergency food aid.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep 24, French power
provider EDF said it has agreed to acquire British Energy Group PLC
for about $23.2 billion in cash in a deal that would create a
powerhouse in nuclear energy.
(AP, 9/24/08)

2008 Sep 25, Britain unveiled
its new biometric identity card which the government says will be
vital in fighting illegal immigration and terrorism, while critics
call it an expensive attack on civil liberties.
(Reuters, 9/25/08)

2008 Sep 26, Yves Rossy of
Switzerland leapt from a plane and into the record books, crossing
the English channel in 13 minutes on a homemade jet-propelled wing.
(AP, 9/26/08)

2008 Sep 28, In England Frank
McGarahan (45), a top Barclays executive, was beaten to death by a
group of youths in Norwich as he tried to stop them attacking a
homeless man.
(AFP, 9/30/08)

2008 Sep 29, Britain seized
control of mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley. Germany organized
a credit lifeline for blue-chip commercial real estate lender Hypo
Real Estate Holding AG, while Iceland's government took over Glitnir
bank, the country's third largest.
(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Sep 29, The US Federal
Reserve with the help of the ECB, the Bank of England and the Bank
of Japan agreed to lend banks a further $620 billion.
(Econ, 10/04/08, p.73)
2008 Sep 29, British candy
maker Cadbury said it is recalling 11 types of Chinese-made
chocolates found to contain melamine, as police in northern China
raided a network accused of adding the banned chemical to milk.
(AP, 9/29/08)

2008 Sep 30, Former Nepalese
Gurkha soldiers won a legal test case on their bid for the right to
settle in Britain.
(AFP, 9/30/08)

2008 Oct 2, Britainís Beckley
Foundation, a charity which numbers senior experts and other
academics among its advisors, reported that cannabis is less harmful
than alcohol or tobacco, and called for a "serious rethink" of
drug policy.
(AFP,
10/2/08)(www.beckleyfoundation.org/aboutus/)

2008 Oct 4, The leaders of
Britain, France, Germany and Italy began meeting in Paris at a
summit on the world financial crisis threatening banks, growth and
jobs across the continent. They vowed to do all they could to
prevent Wall Street's turmoil from destabilizing their banking
systems. Germany's No. 2 commercial property lender, Hypo Real
Estate Holding AG, said its $48 billion rescue plan had unraveled
when private banks pulled out.
(AP, 10/5/08)

2008 Oct 8, Britain added to
the financial chaos engulfing Iceland by declaring it planned to sue
over lost deposits held by thousands of Britons with Icelandic bank
accounts. The news from London overshadowed an emergency loan from
Sweden to Iceland's biggest bank.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 8, Six central banks
jolted markets by cutting interest rates together in an attempt to
shore up confidence in the world's crisis-stricken financial system.
The US Fed reduced its key rate from 2% to 1.5%. The Bank of England
unexpectedly slashed its key lending rate by a half-point to 4.5%.
The Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate by 50 basis points to
2.5%. China also cut its key interest rates for a second time in
less than one month to 6.9%. The European Central Bank sliced its
rate by half a point to 3.75%. Sweden, and Switzerland also cut
rates. Earlier in a day Japan's Nikkei showed its biggest drop since
the October, 1987 stock market crash. The IMF said the world economy
is entering a major downturn.
(AP, 10/8/08)(AFP, 10/8/08)(Econ, 10/11/08,
p.100)

2008 Oct 10, The London stock
market plunged by almost 10.0 percent again, after fresh falls on
Wall Street, as investors continued to fret over the worldwide
financial crisis.
(AP, 10/10/08)

2008 Oct 12, Dozens of renowned
British writers came out against new anti-terrorism legislation,
publishing a collection of satire, essays, fiction and poetry to
protest a proposal allowing police to hold suspects without charge
for up to 42 days. The next day the House of Lords rejected the plan
and the government said it would abandon the proposal.
(AP, 10/12/08)(SFC, 10/14/08, p.A4)

2008 Oct 13, Stock markets
rejoiced after governments worldwide launched multibillion-dollar
bailouts to shore up banks, and Britain called for a new Bretton
Woods agreement to reshape the world financial system. The US
Central Bank said it would provide unlimited dollars the European
Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank.
Britain committed £37 billion ($64 billion) to capitalize its big
banks. Wall Street rebounded with the biggest stock rally since the
Great Depression. The DJIA rose 936 points to close at 9,387.61, its
largest point gain ever and one of its largest percentage increases.
(Reuters, 10/13/08)(SFC, 10/14/08, p.A1)(WSJ,
10/14/08, p.A3)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.83)
2008 Oct 13, Iraq's oil
minister met 34 oil company representatives in London to set out the
ground rules for foreign multinationals' first bite at the country's
enormous energy reserves since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
(AP, 10/13/08)

2008 Oct 14, Indian author
Aravind Adiga (b.1974) won the 2008 Booker Prize with his first
novel: ďThe White Tiger." The book follows Balram Halwai, the son of
a rickshaw puller, who dreams of better things than life as teashop
worker and driver.
(AFP, 10/15/08)

2008 Oct 15, Nicky Reilly (22),
a convert to Islam, pleaded guilty at a London court to attempted
murder and engaging in preparation for terrorism by researching how
to make bombs. He was arrested shortly after a blast rattled a
family restaurant in the southwest English city of Exeter 200 miles
(320 kilometers) west of London on May 22.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, The Shell
Anglo-Dutch group said a Nigerian court has ordered it to hand over
land around its giant Bonny oil terminal to the local population, a
key demand of armed rebels in the volatile region. Shell said ruling
was given some months ago but we have appealed.
(AFP, 10/15/08)

2008 Oct 16, In Dubai a British
couple was sentenced to three months in jail in a case that has
caused controversy because the two were charged in July with having
sex on the beach. The Dubai Court of Appeals upheld the guilty
verdict but dropped the prison sentences for Michelle Palmer and
Vince Acors, though it ruled the couple must still be deported from
the United Arab Emirates and pay a fine of about $272 each.
(AP, 10/15/08)(AP, 11/25/08)

2008 Oct 18, Phil Woolas,
Britainís new immigration minister, said the government will impose
tougher restrictions on immigration as the global financial crisis
lifts unemployment to the highest rate in nearly a decade.
(AFP, 10/18/08)

2008 Oct 21, The Pentagon said
it has dropped war-crimes charges against five Guantanamo Bay
detainees after the former prosecutor in their cases complained that
the military was withholding evidence helpful to the defense.
Lawyers for Ethiopian refugee Binyam Mohamed, a British resident
held at Guantanamo, said the US has dropped all charges against him,
but he is still being held at the US prison camp.
(AP, 10/21/08)

2008 Oct 22, The British
government won its appeal to the highest court against previous
rulings allowing displaced Indian Ocean Chagos islanders to return
home. The resettlement of the Chagossians in the 1960s and1970s
allowed Britain to lease the main island, Diego Garcia, to the
United States military for 50 years.
(AFP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 22, British
researchers said a drug, known by its lab name of alemtuzumab and
licensed for use against leukemia, braked and even reversed the
effects of multiple sclerosis among patients with MS.
(http://health.yahoo.com/news/reuters/us_multiplesclerosis_drug.html)

2008 Oct 23, England Schools
Minister Jim Knight said millions of children in England aged from
five to 16 in state-funded schools will receive compulsory lessons
about subjects including sex and drug use.
(AFP, 10/23/08)

2008 Oct 31, Petrofac evacuated
56 non-essential workers from the North Sea Heather Alpha oil rig
after a reports of 10-20 ton oil spill.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, Top British
filmmaker Danny Boyle's new Mumbai-based film "Slumdog Millionaire"
won rave reviews after its screening at the close of the London Film
Festival.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, Middle East
investors will own up to one third of Barclays Plc after Abu Dhabi
and Qatar provided most of 7.3 billion pounds ($12.1 billion) raised
by the bank to repair damage from the global financial crisis and
avoid taking UK government rescue funds.
(Reuters, 10/31/08)

2008 Nov 1, Britainís PM Gordon
Brown left for a tour of oil-rich Gulf states, hoping to persuade
them to give extra funds to help countries hit by the world economic
turmoil.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 1, It was reported
that British Major Sebastian Morley, commander of SAS (Special Air
Service) troops in Afghanistan, has resigned, reportedly in disgust
at equipment failures that he believes led to the death of four of
his troops.
(AFP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 1, Three Tunisian men
accused of terrorism links by Italian prosecutors arrived in Milan
under heavy security after being extradited from Britain. Habib
Ignaoua, Mohamed Khemiri and Ali Chehidi were arrested in the London
and Manchester areas last year as part of coordinated raids across
Europe against an alleged Italian-based network recruiting fighters
for Iraq and Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/2/08)

2008 Nov 2, British PM Gordon
Brown said he is confident that Saudi Arabia will contribute to the
International Monetary Fund's bailout reserves after he promised
business leaders in the Gulf that they would have a say in any
future new world economic order.
(AP, 11/2/08)

2008 Nov 3, UK Financial
Investments (UKFI) was set up to mange the British governmentís
stakes in rescued banks. John Kingman, a Treasury executive, was
placed in charge.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.64)

2008 Nov 4, In London A sketch
by Winnie the Pooh illustrator E.H. Shepard titled "Tiggers Don't
Like Honey" fetched 31,200 pounds ($49,770) at auction, well above
the pre-sale estimate of 15,000 to 20,000 pounds ($24,000 to
$32,000).
(AP, 11/4/08)

2008 Nov 5, Queen Elizabeth II
approved a new constitution for the Falkland Islands. It formalizes
the system of self-government on the South Atlantic archipelago,
while giving Britain the final say on foreign policy, policing and
the administration of justice.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 5, Cpl. Daniel James
(45), a former British army interpreter, was convicted of espionage
for sending e-mails to an Iranian diplomat while serving in
Afghanistan in 2006.
(AP, 11/5/08)

2008 Nov 6, The European
Central Bank cut its key interest rate by half a percentage point to
3.25% and the Bank of England made an even more aggressive reduction
of 1.5%, from 4.5% to 3%, in an effort to ease the financial crisis
and boost their flagging economies. The rate in England was lowest
since 1955.
(AP, 11/6/08)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.71)

2008 Nov 12, In Afghanistan a
bomb-filled tanker exploded outside the office of the provincial
council in Kandahar, killing six people and wounding 42. Two British
troops were killed in an explosion in southern Helmand province. Men
squirted the acid from water bottles onto three groups of students
and teachers walking to school in Kandahar. Some of the girls
received burns only on their school uniforms but others will have
scars on their faces. On Nov 25 officials announced the arrest of 10
Taliban militants involved in the acid attack.
(AP, 11/12/08)(AP, 11/13/08)(AP, 11/14/08)(AP,
11/25/08)
2008 Nov 12, Pirates
commandeered the Karagol, a Turkish chemical tanker, off the coast
of Yemen. 14 Turkish personnel were aboard the tanker. The Russian
frigate Neustrashimy and the British frigate Cumberland foiled
pirates who fired automatic weapons toward a Danish ship and twice
tried to seize it in the Gulf of Aden. The Karagol was released on
Jan 12, 2009.
(AP, 11/12/08)(AP, 1/13/09)

2008 Nov 14, Iraq's national
security advisor said all British troops will be out of Iraq by the
end of next year.
(AFP, 11/14/08)

2008 Nov 19, The British
government announced plans to make it illegal to pay for sex with
women forced into prostitution and to name men who solicit sex on
the streets, measures that prostitutes say will put more women at
risk.
(AP, 11/19/08)

2008 Nov 20, Britain called on
Rwandan President Paul Kagame to use his "influence" over Congolese
rebels led by general Laurent Nkunda to end to violence in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 11/20/08)

2008 Nov 25, In Britain the
application process began for a national identity card for some
foreign nationals in an attempt to combat terrorism and identity
fraud. On June 30, 2009, home secretary Alan Johnson said Britons
would not be required to have the new ID cards. A British law went
into effect that allows courts to prevent someone from being forced
into marriage, a move that comes as governments across Europe
confront immigrant practices that sometimes clash with more liberal
values. On Oct 12, 2011, Britainís highest court ruled that the ban
on foreign spouses aged under 21 entering Britain is unlawful.
(AP, 11/25/08)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.55)(AP, 10/12/11)
2008 Nov 25, In Britain a
Sheffield man (56) was sentenced to life in prison for raping his
children for more than 25 years, from the time they were between 8
and 10, beating them when they resisted. Between them, the daughters
bore their father seven surviving children. Two more died at birth;
the other pregnancies ended in abortion or miscarriage.
(AP, 11/26/08)

2008 Nov 26, British data
showed its economy shrank 0.5% in the 3 months to September, placing
it perilously close to recession as it feels the chill from the
global financial crisis.
(AP, 11/26/08)

2008 Nov 27, In southern
Afghanistan 2 British troops were killed after being fired at by
insurgents while on patrol. A suicide car bomber targeting an
American convoy exploded about 200 yards (meters) outside the US
Embassy in Kabul, killing at least four Afghan bystanders as people
entered the compound for a Thanksgiving Day race.
(AFP, 11/27/08)(AP, 11/27/08)

2008 Dec 2, A British judge
ordered Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric, to be jailed because of
fears he was preparing to abscond. Qatada was once described as
Osama bin Ladenís ambassador in Europe.
(SFC, 12/3/08, p.A14)
2008 Dec 2, Mike Terry (61),
anti-apartheid activist, died. He led Britain's anti-apartheid
movement for nearly two decades and played a pivotal role in turning
British public opinion against South Africa's white minority rule.
(AP, 12/5/08)

2008 Dec 3, Lynn Gilderdale
(31), who suffered from myalgic encephalomyelitis (aka chronic
fatigue syndrome), died in East Sussex with the assistance of her
mother, Kay Gilderdale. In 2010 a British jury cleared the mother of
murder charges.
(www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article5309918.ece)(SSFC,
1/31/10, p.A4)

2008 Dec 4, The Bank of England
cut its base interest rate from 3% to 2%, a rate last seen in 1951.
(Econ, 12/6/08, p.74)
2008 Dec 4, Europe's top human
rights court ruled that storing DNA from people with no criminal
record is in breach of their rights, a landmark decision that could
force Britain to destroy the samples of nearly 1 million people on
its database.
(AP, 12/4/08)

2008 Dec 8, British car parts
maker Wagon PLC said it planned to file for a form of bankruptcy
protection after a global slump in demand for cars crippled its
business.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 8, British and French
leaders met with European business executives to discuss plans for
major government spending on infrastructure and energy projects
aimed at helping Europe to beat the downturn.
(AP, 12/8/08)

2008 Dec 10, British television
broadcast a documentary of the assisted suicide of Craig Ewert
(d.2006 at 59), a terminally ill American, as he died in
Switzerland. The documentary, ďRight to Die?," was made by
Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky.
(SFC, 12/11/08, p.A2)
2008 Dec 10, Anglo-Australian
mining giant Rio Tinto said it will slash some 14,000 jobs globally
to cut its debt by 10 billion US dollars as it battles falling
prices and a global slowdown.
(AFP, 12/10/08)

2008 Dec 13, Britainís PM
Gordon Brown paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan, where he spoke to
troops battling the Taliban and held talks with President Hamid
Karzai. 3 Canadian soldiers were killed and one wounded in southern
Afghanistan when an explosive device detonated near the armored car
in which they were riding.
(AFP, 12/13/08)(Reuters, 12/14/08)

2008 Dec 15, Europe's biggest
bank, London-based HSBC, joined a list of top names in world finance
admitting huge potential losses in a suspected pyramid fraud scam
run by Wall Street figurehead Bernard Madoff.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 15, A spokeswoman in
London said Madonna has settled her divorce with ex-husband Guy
Ritchie by parting with at least 50 million pounds ($76 million).
(AP, 12/16/08)

2008 Dec 17, British PM Gordon
Brown said his country's troops will leave Iraq by May 31, ending a
mission that provided the second-largest military presence in Iraq
after the United States. Police said a double-bombing in Baghdad
targeting traffic police left at least 18 people dead and 52 others
wounded. The US military reported nine killed and 43 wounded.
(AP, 12/17/08)
2008 Dec 17, A London judge
sentenced Bilal Abdulla (29) to at least 32 years in prison for his
role in the June 29, 2007, attempted car bombs in London and an
attack at Glasgow Airport the following day.
(SFC, 12/18/08, p.A17)

2008 Dec 20, The British
government said it has sold its final stake in the country's nuclear
weapons plant, prompting criticism from MPs who said it throws the
independence of the British nuclear deterrent into question.
State-owned British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) sold its one-third
stake of the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at
Aldermaston, Berkshire, to Jacobs Engineering Group of the United
States.
(AFP, 12/20/08)

2008 Dec 21, Christopher
Hibbert (1924), a British historian, died. His over 50 books covered
subjects from the medieval Battle of Agincourt to the American
Revolutionary War.
(AP, 1/6/09)

2008 Dec 24, British stores
deepened discounts, hoping to lure in last-minute shoppers on
Christmas Eve. Music and DVD seller Zavvi joined tea merchant
Whittard and menswear store The Officers Club on the growing list of
casualties of a severe downturn in consumer spending and tight
credit conditions.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 24, Harold Pinter
(78), a Nobel Prize-winning British playwright, died. He was one of
theater's biggest names for nearly half a century. His 32 plays
included "The Birthday Party", "The Dumb Waiter" and "The
Homecoming". His first play, "The Room," appeared in 1957 and his
breakthrough came with "The Caretaker" in 1960. In 2010 Antonia
Fraser published ďMust You Go? My Life With Harold Pinter."
(AFP, 12/25/08)(SSFC, 11/7/10, p.F4)

2008 Dec 29, The British pound
fell to a record low against the euro, flirting with one pound per
euro as two gloomy economic forecasts stoked expectations that the
Bank of England will make further interest rate cuts next year.
(AP, 12/29/08)

2008 Peter Ackroyd authored
ďThames: The Biography."
(SSFC, 11/16/08, Books p.5)
2008 Sir Richard Branson,
chairman of the British Virgin Group, authored ďBusiness stripped
Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur."
(Econ, 9/27/08, p.80)
2008 Anthony Seldon authored
ďBlair Unbound," a continuation of his 2004 book ďBlair," which
covered the career of former British PM tony Blair.
(WSJ, 4/28/08, p.A17)
2008 Britain enacted a law
protecting transgender people at work.
(Reuters, 6/17/15)
2008 The British Royal Mint
produced at least 100,000 20-pence coins with no date. The error was
acknowledged in June, 2009. The last time a similar error occurred
was in 1672.
(SFC, 6/30/09, p.A2)
2008 Britainís National
Ballistics Intelligence Survey (NABIS) was set up to identify guns
and bullets as the number of shootings rose.
(Econ, 10/5/13, p.61)

2009 Jan 2, In Britain 2 people
were feared dead after a light aircraft crashed into a major railway
line, causing severe disruption to train services between Rugeley
and Stafford.
(AFP, 1/2/09)

2009 Jan 3, Sir Alan Walters
(b.1926), a top economic adviser to former British PM Margaret
Thatcher, died. Walters received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth
II in 1983.
(AP, 1/6/09)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.50)
2009 Jan 3, Tens of thousands
of people demonstrated in European cities against Israel's
bombardment of Gaza, including protesters who hurled shoes at the
tall iron gates outside the British prime minister's residence in
London.
(AP, 1/3/09)

2009 Jan 4, British PM Gordon
Brown pledged to create 100,000 jobs through a public works program
and said he would press banks to resume normal lending as Britain
faces its sharpest economic downturn in decades.
(AP, 1/4/09)

2009 Jan 5, British company
Waterford Wedgwood PLC, the maker of classic china and crystal,
filed for bankruptcy protection after attempts to restructure the
struggling business or find a buyer failed.
(AP, 1/5/09)

2009 Jan 6, Signs mounted that
the conflict in Gaza is starting to spill over into violence in
Europe's towns and cities, with assaults against Jews and arson
attacks on Jewish congregations in France, Sweden and Britain.
(AP, 1/6/09)

2009 Jan 9, Lloyds TSB Bank
said it has agreed to pay a 350-million dollar penalty to settle a
probe that it illegally handled financial transfers from 1995 to
2007 for Iran and Sudan in violation of US sanctions.
(AFP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 9, In Worcestershire,
England, four armed robbers shot and killed Craig Hodson-Walker
(29), a postmaster's son, during a robbery in Fairfield near
Bromsgrove. His father was wounded in the leg.
(AFP, 1/10/09)

2009 Jan 10, Two British
climbers, including the youngest Briton to conquer Everest, fell
hundreds of meters to their deaths on Mont Blanc in the French Alps.
(AFP, 1/11/09)

2009 Jan 12, Sofa retailer Land
of Leather filed for bankruptcy protection, becoming the latest
British retailer to succumb to a downturn in consumer spending amid
the global economic slowdown.
(AP, 1/12/09)

2009 Jan 14, In Afghanistan 2
British NATO soldiers were killed in a blast in southern Helmand
province.
(AFP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 14, Jan Kaplicky
(b.1937), a British-based Czech architect, died in Prague just hours
after his wife Eliska gave birth to their daughter Johanka. He
designed the award-winning media center at Lord's cricket ground in
London.
(AP, 1/15/09)

2009 Jan 15, The British
government announced its support for a controversial third runway at
London's chronically overcrowded Heathrow Airport, despite angry
opposition from green groups and locals.
(AP, 1/15/09)

2009 Jan 16, British pop star
Boy George (47) was sentenced to 15 months in jail for imprisoning a
Norwegian male escort (29) after a nude photoshoot. The singer and
disc jockey, who stood trial under his real name George O'Dowd,
admitted to police to handcuffing Audun Carlsen to his bed on April
28, 2007, as he investigated the Norwegian's alleged tampering with
his computer.
(AFP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 16, Farhad Hakimzadeh,
a wealthy US businessman with a passion for books about the Middle
East, was sentenced to two years in jail for stealing pages from
rare texts at two of Britain's most venerable libraries.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 16, John Mortimer
(b.1923), British lawyer and writer, died. He was the creator of the
curmudgeonly criminal lawyer Rumpole of the Bailey.
(AP, 1/16/09)

2009 Jan 17, PM Gordon Brown
told British banks they must own up to the extent of their bad
assets amid more reports his government could launch a fresh bailout
of the struggling sector.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, Edmund de
Rothschild (93), former chairman of N.M. Rothschild and Sons
merchant bank and a noted horticulturist, died at his home in
England.
(AP, 1/21/09)

2009 Jan 18, British television
presenter Tony Hart (83) died. He had charmed generations of
children with his artsy antics.
(AP, 1/18/09)

2009 Jan 19, Britain announced
a second rescue plan for the country's ailing banks, hoping to thaw
frozen lending by offering to insure banks against large-scale
losses on bad assets they already hold.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, An Atheist Bus
Campaign's message, translated into Catalan, began appearing on two
routes in Barcelona, with plans to extend the campaign to the rest
of the country. A campaign with the concise message "There's
probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life," took to the
road in Britain this month. In Italy buses with the slogan "The bad
news is that God does not exist. The good news is that we do not
need him" will begin traversing the northern Italian city of Genoa
on February 4.
(AFP, 1/24/09)

2009 Jan 21, Official data
showed Britain's economy is weakening fast, with more figures due
this week expected to confirm the country has sunk into recession
for the first time since 1991.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, In London the
Daily Mail and General Trust PLC, owner of the Evening Standard
newspaper, announced that Alexander Lebedev, Russian tycoon and
former KGB spy, has bought the money-losing paper for a nominal sum,
reported to be one pound. Lebedev and his son Evgeny (28) would
acquire 75.1% of the paper.
(SFC, 1/22/09, p.A3)

2009 Jan 23, The British
economy was officially declared in recession as a galloping economic
crisis has driven down the value of the British pound to a 23-year
low and threatened to remake the country's political landscape.
(McClatchy Newspapers, 1/23/09)

2009 Jan 29, Britainís PM
Gordon Brown vowed to act with "purpose and determination" to
restore economic growth a day after the IMF said Britain would be
the country worst hit by the global recession.
(AP, 1/29/09)

2009 Jan 30, In Britain wildcat
strikes against foreign workers spread through oil refineries and
other energy facilities, fuelled by fears of rising job cuts due to
the global slowdown.
(AP, 1/30/09)

2009 Jan 31, On the streets of
Birmingham, the queen's English is now the queens English. This week
the city council made it official. England's second-largest city
decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying
they're confusing and old-fashioned.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao arrived in London in the latest leg of a European tour
aimed at tackling the global financial and economic crisis and
improving relations between the trading partners.
(Reuters, 1/31/09)

2009 Feb 2, In England a
protester hurled abuse and then a shoe at China's Premier Wen Jiabao
as he delivered a speech on the global economy at Cambridge
University.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 2, Hundreds more
British power plant workers went on strike in a widening labor
campaign over the use of overseas workers to build an oil refinery
in Immingham. Workers were upset over the decision by Italian
construction company IREM SpA to use Italian and Portuguese workers
for a 200 million-pound ($280 million) project at a Total refinery.
An estimated 6 million people skipped work when the largest
snowstorm to hit London in 18 years stopped bus and subway services,
grounded airliners and hobbled businesses.
(AP, 2/2/09)(AP, 2/3/09)

2009 Feb 3, The Bank of England
said high-street banks had borrowed 185 billion pounds since April
to help to free up the home-lending market.
(AFP, 2/3/09)

2009 Feb 4, The British
military said an army officer has been arrested in Afghanistan on
suspicion of leaking official secrets. Britainís Sun newspaper said
Lt. Col. Owen McNally had leaked figures about civilian deaths in
coalition operations to a worker from a human rights group.
(AP, 2/4/09)

2009 Feb 5, The Bank of England
cut interest rates by a half-point to a record low 1 percent as it
fought a deepening recession brought on by the world financial
crisis.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, British workers
voted to end a week-long unofficial strike over the use of foreign
labor at a French-owned oil refinery that sparked sympathy protests
across Britain.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 5, The British Council
said that it has suspended work in Iran because of what it calls
intimidation by the authorities there. The British Council reopened
its Tehran office in 2001 after a 22-year break following the 1979
Islamic revolution. It said 13,000 Iranians took part in English
lessons and other programs it ran in Tehran last year.
(AP, 2/5/09)

2009 Feb 8, In London the film
"Slumdog Millionaire", the rags-to-riches tale of a Mumbai tea boy
who wins big, swept the board at the British Academy Film Awards
(BAFTAs) with seven prizes including best film.
(AP, 2/8/09)

2009 Feb 10, The British
government banned Dutch right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders from
visiting the country to show his anti-Islam film "Fitna" at the
Houses of Parliament. In a telephone interview Wilders called the
government's decision "cowardly" and vowed to defy it.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, In England William
Foxton (65), died from a single bullet wound to the head in the
southern port city of Southampton. He killed himself after losing
his life savings in an alleged $50 billion fraud run by Wall Street
financier Bernard Madoff. Foxton had served in the British Army and
more recently worked as a defense contractor in Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/14/09)

2009 Feb 12, The Aluminum
Corporation of China (Chinalco) announced that it would invest $19.5
billion in Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto. In June it was reported
that Chinalco would not complete the deal.
(Econ, 2/14/09, p.73)(AFP, 6/4/09)

2009 Feb 13, Lloyds Banking
Group (LBG), already 43% owned by the British government announced a
£10billion loss at HBOS, which it had taken over last September.
(Econ, 2/21/09, p.56)

2009 Feb 14, Sir Bernard Ashley
(82), British businessman, died. He teamed up with his wife to build
the Laura Ashley (d.1985) fashion and home furnishing brand into a
global business.
(AP, 2/17/09)

2009 Feb 15, Britain's Sunday
Times reported that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has bought a
4 million pound ($5.6 million) home in Hong Kong. It was bought last
year, as Mugabe's 20-year-old daughter began studying at the
University of Hong Kong. The paper said it was one of several
properties the Mugabes own in Asia but the first to be documented.
(AP, 2/16/09)

2009 Feb 16, A new British
anti-terrorism law went into effect that could effectively bar
photographers from taking pictures of police of military personnel.
(SFC, 2/17/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 16, Authorities
acknowledged that nuclear-armed submarines from Britain and France
collided in the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month, touching off new
concerns about the safety of the world's deep sea missile fleets.
The HMS Vanguard, the oldest vessel in Britain's nuclear-armed
submarine fleet, and the French Le Triomphant submarine, which was
also carrying nuclear missiles, both suffered minor damage in the
collision.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, Sir Ernest
Harrison (b.1926), British businessman, died. He led Racal
Electronic PLC and oversaw the birth of Vodafone Group PLC (1988).
(WSJ, 2/28/09, p.A8)

2009 Feb 17, British experts
that they have found the first evidence of a hemophiliac contracting
mad cow disease from contaminated blood products.
(AP, 2/17/09)

2009 Feb 18, A British judge
discharged the jury in the trial of a group of British Muslims
accused of plotting to blow up trans-Atlantic passenger jets in
mid-air, citing legal reasons. Britainís high court ruled that Abu
Qatada, an extremist Muslim preacher, can be deported to
Jordan despite fears he could face torture there.
(AP, 2/18/09)(SFC, 2/19/09, p.A2)

2009 Feb 19, Europe's highest
human rights court has awarded Abu Qatada, an extremist Muslim
preacher, euro2,800 ($3,550) for being held unlawfully by British
authorities during an anti-terrorist probe. A day earlier Britain's
highest court ruled that Abu Qatada could be deported to Jordan
despite fears he could face torture there. The European Court of
Human Rights ruled that Qatada and 10 other detainees had their
right to liberty violated when they were held in high-security
conditions.
(AP, 2/19/09)

2009 Feb 23, Binyam Mohamed
(b.1978), Ethiopian-born former British resident, was freed from
Guantanamo after nearly seven year in US captivity without facing
trial. He claimed that he was tortured at a covert CIA site in
Morocco. He was arrested at the Karachi airport in April, 2002,
while trying to fly back to Britain on a false passport. During
three months of detention in Pakistan, he was allegedly tortured by
Pakistani agents. In 2004 he was taken to the US prison at Bagram
Air Base in Afghanistan and signed a confession, which he later
claimed was extracted under duress. On Sep 20, 2004, he was flown to
the US military detention center at Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 2/23/09)

2009 Feb 24, British mining
group Lonmin announced up to 5,500 job cuts in South Africa, dealing
a new blow to the continent's biggest economy as it contracted for
the first time in a decade.
(AP, 2/24/09)

2009 Feb 26, British
prosecutors said they would not bring charges against Gary McKinnon,
a computer expert accused by a US attorney of the "biggest military
hack of all time," dealing a blow to his bid to avoid extradition.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, The Royal Bank of
Scotland posted a 2008 loss of 24.1 billion pounds, the largest in
British corporate history, because of the credit crunch and the
mis-timed takeover of ABN Amro. The British government has meanwhile
agreed to insure RBS "toxic" assets worth 325 billion pounds in its
Asset Protection Scheme (APS) and will cover 90 percent of losses
stemming from such holdings. Sir Fred Goodwin (50), head of RBS for
a decade, insisted that he is entitled to his full pension of over
£700,000 ($980,000) a year. In March Goodwin received a $4 million
tax-free advance as part of his negotiated pension package. In 2013
Iain Martin authored ďMaking it Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the
men who blew Up the British Economy."
(AFP, 2/26/09)(Econ, 3/7/09, p.22)(SFC, 3/18/09,
p.A2)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.95)
2009 Feb 26, Former EastEnders
star Wendy Richard (65), who was diagnosed with cancer in January,
died in London. She best known for her role as Pauline Fowler in the
London-based soap whom she played for more than two decades.
(AFP, 2/26/09)

2009 Mar 2, A Chinese man said
he was the mystery collector behind winning bids for two imperial
bronzes auctioned last week at Christie's over Beijing's objections,
and that he made the bogus offers to protest any sale of the looted
relics. The sculptures disappeared from the Summer Palace on the
outskirts of Beijing when French and British forces sacked and
burned it at the end of the second Opium War in 1860. The sculptures
date to the early Qing Dynasty, established by invading Manchu
tribesmen in 1644. The Christie's catalog said they were made for
the Zodiac fountain at the imperial palace.
(AP, 3/2/09)

2009 Mar 3, US President Barack
Obama and British PM Gordon Brown held their first White House
talks. They discussed the coordination of worldwide actions to
stimulate economies.
(AFP, 3/3/09)(SFC, 3/4/09, p.A5)

2009 Mar 4, British PM Gordon
Brown addressed a joint session of the US Congress and bestowed an
honorary knighthood for Senator Edward Kennedy.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.65)
2009 Mar 4, Channel tunnel
operator Eurotunnel said it will pay its first ever dividend after
making a net profit of 40 million euros in 2008 despite fire damage
of 200 million euros (250 million dollars).
(AP, 3/4/09)

2009 Mar 5, The Bank of England
cut interest rates by 50 basis points to a record low of 0.5%, and
said it would pump 75 billion pounds of new money into buying assets
in its battle with recession.
(Reuters, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, The European Court
of Justice said Britain's law requiring retirement at age 65 is
legal under EU rules. The advocacy group Age Concern took the
British government to court in 2006 to demand the reversal of the
forced retirement rule.
(AP, 3/5/09)

2009 Mar 7, The British
government said it will take a majority stake in Lloyds Banking
Group and guarantee toxic assets, leaving only two major British
banks outside the state's control.
(AFP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 7, Suspected IRA
dissidents opened fire on British troops and pizza delivery men at
the entrance to Massereene army barracks in Antrim, west of Belfast,
killing two soldiers and wounding four other people. The attackers
fired on Mark Quinsey (23) and Patrick Azimkar (21) again as they
lay wounded on the ground. A week later 3 men were arrested over the
killings. On March 27 Colin Duffy (41), a prominent dissident
republican, was remanded in custody after being charged with the
murders of the two British soldiers. He was linked to the soldiers'
murder by DNA evidence. On April 2 police arrested a 19-year-old man
on suspicion of gunning down the two British soldiers. On Jan 20,
2012, Brian Shivers (46) was found guilty of the shooting and
sentenced to at least 25 years in prison. Colin Duffy was cleared.
On May 3, 2013, a judge dismissed the forensic evidence against
Shivers and ruled he was too feeble to have played a role.
(AP, 3/8/09)(AFP, 3/14/09)(Econ, 3/14/09,
p.59)(AFP, 3/27/09)(AP, 4/2/09)(AFP, 1/20/12)(AP, 2/10/12)(AP,
5/3/13)

2009 Mar 13, Thousands of
people across Britain took part in events for Red Nose Day, with
money going towards helping the disadvantaged in Africa and Britain.
(AFP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 13, John Worboys
(b.1957), a London cab driver, was found guilty of raping or
assaulting 12 women, often after persuading them to drink champagne
spiked with sedatives. On April 21 he was sentenced to at
least 8 years in prison. In 2010 Scotland Yard said 102 women have
come forward to accuse Worboys of sexually motivated crimes since
his highly publicized trial.
(AP,
10/26/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Worboys)

2009 Mar 14, In England G20
finance officials held a day of talks to pave the way for the April
2 London G20 summit on tackling the downturn. They worked to find
common ground amid deep divisions on how to tackle the global
downturn, with key players trying to inject optimism into talks that
many fear could result in little real progress.
(AP, 3/14/09)(AFP, 3/14/09)

2009 Mar 16, Sir Nicholas
Henderson (89), a former British ambassador to the US, died in
London. He helped build support for Britain's war effort in
the Falklands Islands.
(AP, 3/16/09)

2009 Mar 18, Sean Hodgson (57),
a British man who spent 27 years in prison, walked free after his
murder conviction was overturned because of new DNA evidence in a
case that may help others who have been wrongly convicted.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, Natasha Richardson
(45). British actress, died in NYC from a severe brain injury in a
skiing accident in Canada earlier this week.
(Reuters, 3/19/09)

2009 Mar 22, In England a
murder hunt started with the discovery of a victim's left leg and
foot on the side of a Hertfordshire road. By Apr 11 all other body
parts were found except for the manís hands.
(AFP, 4/13/09)
2009 Mar 22, British reality
television star Jade Goody (27) died in her sleep, after a very
public battle with cervical cancer.
(AFP, 3/22/09)(Econ, 3/28/09, p.98)

2009 Mar 24, The British
government published its revamped counter-terrorism strategy.
(Econ, 3/28/09, p.67)

2009 Mar 26, The archives from
the London Historical Records, dating back to the 16th century,
began to be made available online. Around 250,000 records were
currently available, with all 77 million uploaded by 2011.
(AP, 3/26/09)

2009 Mar 28, Thousands of
demonstrators marched through London to demand action on poverty,
jobs and climate change at the start of a week of protests aimed at
the G20 summit in the capital.
(AP, 3/28/09)

2009 Mar 31, Sir Sacheverell
Reresby Sitwell (81) died in London. He restored the stately home of
his famously eccentric family to its former glory. In 1965 Reresby
Sitwell inherited Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire, the family seat since
1625. Sitwell was the elder son of Sacheverell Sitwell, who with his
brother Osbert and sister Edith were famed for their literary talent
and their quirks.
(AP, 4/2/09)

2009 Apr 1, In London
Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama said Russia and the
United States will pursue a new deal to cut nuclear warheads, making
good on a pledge to rebuild relations from a post-Cold War low. The
US and China agreed to establish a "strategic and economic dialogue"
group that would first meet in Washington later this year.
(Reuters, 4/1/09)
2009 Apr 1, G20 protesters
clashed with riot police in downtown London, breaking into the
heavily guarded Royal Bank of Scotland and smashing its windows.
Earlier, they tried to storm the Bank of England and pelted police
with eggs and fruit. Ian Tomlinson (47) was filmed being hit by an
officer with a baton shortly before collapsing in the City of London
financial district. He had not been taking part in the protests and
died of a hemorrhage. In 2012 Dr Freddy Patel was found guilty of
misconduct by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) in
relation to his handling of the examination of Ian Tomlinson's body.
The pathologist had concluded that Tomlinson died from a heart
attack.
(AP, 4/1/09)(AFP, 4/17/09)(AFP, 8/23/12)
2009 Apr 1, A helicopter
returning to Aberdeen with 16 people from an oil platform crashed in
the North Sea. The Bond Super Puma helicopter went down off the
northeast coast of Scotland. 8 bodies were recovered and the others
were presumed dead. 7 bodies were later found inside the wreckage of
the helicopter.
(AFP, 4/1/09)(AP, 4/2/09)(AP, 4/5/09)

2009 Apr 2, In London G20
leaders pledged $1.1 trillion in loans and guarantees to struggling
countries and agreed to crack down on tax havens and hedge funds,
but failed to reach sweeping accord on more stimulus spending to
attack the global economic decline.
(AP, 4/2/09)

2009 Apr 4, A pair of British
brothers (10 & 11) in Edlington lured two young boys (9 &
10) into a clearing to see some animals, and then tortured them in
an attack so violent it left one of the victims pleading to be left
alone to die. On Sep 3 the brothers admitted charges of robbery,
intentionally causing grievous bodily harm and causing a child to
engage in sexual activity.
(AP, 9/4/09)

2009 Apr 6, The US Federal
Reserve said it will supply new lines of credit worth up to $287
billion to the central banks of Japan, Switzerland, the United
Kingdom and EU.
(AP, 4/6/09)

2009 Apr 8, British police
arrested 12 suspects in a major anti-terror operation. 11 of the 12
were Pakistani nationals. One 18-year-old was soon handed over to
the UK border agency for questioning about his immigration status.
All the suspects were released after 2 weeks.
(AP, 4/9/09)(AP, 4/11/09)(AP, 4/22/09)
2009 Apr 8, In France workers
at a British-owned adhesives factory held three British executives
and a local manager captive over plans to close the site down.
Scapa, which announced in February it would close its plant in
Bellegarde, said it was forced to cut back after the market for car
industry adhesives collapsed by 50 percent in 2008.
(AP, 4/8/09)

2009 Apr 10, In Britain 11
environmental activists from a group called Eastside Climate Action
were arrested after they entered the power station and climbed onto
equipment at the coal-fired Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant outside
Nottingham. In 2011 a trial against 6 of the accused activists broke
down after a police infiltrator prepared to give evidence on their
behalf.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratcliffe-on-Soar_Power_Station)(AFP,
1/10/11)

2009 Apr 14, The EU started
legal action against Britain for not applying EU data privacy rules
that would restrict an Internet advertising tracker called Phorm
from watching how users surf the Web.
(AP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 14, In London Sahnoun
Daifallah (42) of Algeria, an unemployed chemist, was jailed for
spraying a mix of urine and feces on food, wine and children's books
in several British stores. Daifallah was sentenced to 9 years in
prison after being found guilty of four counts of contaminating
goods. Deportation proceedings were in progress.
(AP, 4/15/09)

2009 Apr 15, A blockade by
French fishermen angry at EU quotas cut ferry links with Britain for
a second day as a union official threatened to block the Channel
Tunnel in support of the movement.
(AFP, 4/15/09)
2009 Apr 15, Clement Freud
(84), a grandson of Sigmund Freud, died. He became a well-known
writer, politician and urbane regular on British radio. He was best
known from his three decades appearing on the BBC game show, "Just a
Minute," in which panelists compete to see who can talk the longest
without hesitation, deviation or repetition. In 2016 his widow
apologized after he was accused in a television documentary of
sexually abusing two girls between the late 1940s and 1970s.
(AP, 4/16/09)(AP, 6/15/16)

2009 Apr 16, The British
government promised a multimillion pound investment to try to
jumpstart the market for environmentally friendly electric cars.
(SFC, 4/17/09, p.A2)

2009 Apr 19, Author J.G.
Ballard (78), a China-born author and survivor of a Japanese prison
camp, died in London. His vision was so dark and distinctive it was
labeled "Ballardian." His first novel, "The Wind From Nowhere"
(1962) sold well enough for Ballard to become a full-time writer.
Other works included the novels "The Drowned World" and "The Crystal
World" and the story collection "Vermilion Sands." He reached a wide
audience with the autobiographical "Empire Of The Sun" (1984),
adapted as a film (1987) by Steven Spielberg.
(AP, 4/20/09)

2009 Apr 20, Thousands of
Tamils blocked some of London's busiest roads, demonstrating outside
the Houses of Parliament for an immediate ceasefire in the war
between Tamil rebels and Sri Lanka's government.
(AFP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 20, British
pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline said it has agreed to buy
US-based skincare group Stiefel Laboratories in a deal worth up to
2.4 billion pounds ($3.6 billion).
(AP, 4/20/09)

2009 Apr 21, Scientists
attending a conference in England said that a planet named Gliese
581 e, has been located in a galaxy outside our solar system. The
new planet is probably too hot for human life because it sits very
close to the sun-like star it orbits. A 2nd planet, Gliese 581 d
found in 2007, was said to be in a zone habitable for potential
life.
(AP, 4/21/09)(SFC, 4/22/09, p.A10)
2009 Apr 21, Jack Jones (96),
Britain union leader, died. He became a household name in Britain
through his battles to secure better rights for workers.
(AP, 4/22/09)

2009 Apr 22, Britainís
Chancellor Alistair Darling said the government will pay drivers to
swap old cars for new in a scheme to boost its stricken auto sector,
mirroring moves in Germany and other European nations. He also said
he saw the economy starting to grow again by the end of this year
following the worst recession since World War II.
(AP, 4/22/09)(AFP, 4/21/09)
2009 Apr 22, Jack Cardiff
(94), British cinematographer, died. Cardiff was one of the
first cinematographers to shoot in Technicolor. He won an Academy
Award for the film "Black Narcissus" and was awarded an honorary
Oscar for his work in 2001.
(AP, 4/22/09)

2009 Apr 24, Margaret Gelling
(84), expert on English place names, died. From 1986 to 1998 she
served as the president of the English Place-Name Society.
(Econ, 5/16/09, p.93)

2009 Apr 28, Ursula Askham
Fanthorpe (b.1929), a highly regarded English poet, died near her
home in Wotton-under-Edge in western England. She was first inspired
by the human tragedy she saw in a neurological hospital.
(AP, 5/1/09)

2009 Apr 29, Britainís PM
Gordon Brown said it will boost its troops in Afghanistan to 9,000
to help the country through upcoming elections, unveiling a new
strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, Britain and Libya
ratified a prisoner transfer deal that could potentially allow Abdel
Basset Ali al-Megrahi (57), the man convicted of the Lockerbie
bombings, to serve out the remainder of his sentence in the North
African country.
(AP, 4/29/09)

2009 May 1, Britain awarded the
role of national poet laureate to Carol Ann Duffy (53), the first
woman to hold a post that has been filled by William Wordsworth,
Alfred Lord Tennyson and Ted Hughes. Duffy, a gay woman, has
published more than 30 books, plays and children's stories as well
as poems that mix accessible modern language with traditional forms.
(AP, 5/1/09)(SFC, 5/2/09, p.A3)

2009 May 5, Britain for the
first time published a list of people barred from entering the
country for what the government says is fostering extremism or
hatred.
(AP, 5/5/09)

2009 May 7, Britain promised it
would remove the DNA records of hundreds of thousands from its vast
national registry of genetic information, but said it will still
keep the details of some innocent people for up to 12 years.
(AP, 5/7/09)

2009 May 8, In London Marks
& Spencer admitted it had "boobed" in a row over larger bras,
agreeing to slash the prices of its DD-plus cup sizes to bring them
in line with smaller models.
(AFP, 5/8/09)

2009 May 10, The British
government hit record opinion polls lows as more details of
lawmakers' expenses, detailing lavish spending on everything from
home improvement to pest control, emerged in the press. Labor
legislator Stuart Bell said Parliament will set up an independent
body to oversee legislators' expenses following a series of damaging
revelations.
(AFP, 5/10/09)(AP, 5/10/09)

2009 May 11, British PM Gordon
Brown and the leader of the country's main opposition party
apologized over lawmakers' excessive expenses claims, pledging to
overhaul the allowance system and win back public trust.
(AP, 5/11/09)

2009 May 12, Vittorio Calao
head of Vodafone, a British mobile phone operator, announced a plan
to build a joint global platform through which software companies
and content providers could sell things to mobile subscribers.
(Econ, 5/16/09, p.75)

2009 May 14, Britainís PM
Gordon Brown suspended former agriculture and environment minister
Elliot Morley over embarrassing expenses claim revelations. It had
emerged that Morley claimed over 16,000 pounds for a home loan 18
months after it was paid off. Hours earlier the opposition
Conservatives announced that Andrew MacKay, a lawmaker, had resigned
as an aide to leader David Cameron after it emerged he and his wife,
also a Conservative MP, had claimed expenses for two home loans at
the same time.
(AFP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, A British
parliamentary report into human trafficking said more than 5,000
mostly women and children have been smuggled into Britain to work as
sex slaves and beggars.
(AFP, 5/14/09)

2009 May 15, Britain's expense
scandal widened with the suspension of a justice minister who
claimed more than 65,000 pounds ($98,000) in housing costs over
three years. The Daily Telegraph reported that Justice Minister
Shahid Malik put in the claims while he was given a discounted rent
of 100 pounds ($150) a week by a local landlord.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 15, The Wolfram Alpha
Internet search engine was officially launched. Stephen Wolfram,
British physicist, described it as a ďcomputational knowledge
engine." It was created to compute answers from its own source of
materials.
(Econ, 5/16/09,
p.86)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Alpha)(Econ, 6/4/11, TQ
p.30)

2009 May 16, In Britain David
Chaytor, a ruling party lawmaker, became the latest casualty of a
growing row over MPs' expenses when he was suspended, as police said
they would examine whether the issue merited an investigation. He
was reprimanded after The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported he
claimed 13,000 pounds (14,500 euros, 19,700 dollars) for mortgage
interest on a loan that had already been paid off. He has said he
will repay the amount.
(AFP, 5/16/09)

2009 May 18, British PM Gordon
Brown called for "root and branch" reform to defuse an expenses
scandal that has damaged the main political parties and put pressure
on parliament's most senior figure to quit. A group of MPs launched
a rare bid to oust the Speaker of the House of Commons, over the
expenses scandal.
(Reuters, 5/18/09)(AFP, 5/18/09)

2009 May 19, Michael Martin,
the Speaker of Britain's lower house, said he would step down in
June after criticism of his handling of a scandal over lawmakers'
expenses that has badly tarnished the reputation of the "Mother of
Parliaments." The last Speaker to be forced from the post was John
Trevor, who lost the confidence of the house in 1695 for taking a
bribe.
(Reuters, 5/19/09)
2009 May 19, In London,
England, a protest outside parliament turned violent early as relief
agencies and governments called for urgent humanitarian aid after
Sri Lanka announced defeat for Tamil Tiger rebels.
(AFP, 5/19/09)

2009 May 20, In Britain
hundreds of protesters blocked roads near an oil refinery, as other
sites were hit by a second day of wildcat strikes in a dispute over
hiring foreign workers.
(AP, 5/20/09)
2009 May 20, British actress
Lucy Gordon (28), an up-and-coming talent who played a role in
Spider-Man 3 and will soon appear as Jane Birkin in a Serge
Gainsbourg biopic, killed herself in Paris.
(AFP, 5/21/09)

2009 May 21, The British
government announced a climbdown over settlement rights for Gurkha
veterans, saying all of the Nepalese fighters who have served at
least four years can apply to live here.
(AFP, 5/21/09)

2009 May 25, In Britain an
internal military memo published confirmed that computer disks lost
at a British Royal Air Force base last September contained sensitive
files on the private lives of senior officers, including answers to
vetting questions about drug abuse, extramarital affairs and the use
of prostitutes.
(AP, 5/25/09)

2009 May 28, The British Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds said in a new report that the
cuckoo bird and 51 other species were in danger of extinction due
largely to a decrease in their food and water supply in sub-Saharan
Africa, from where many migrate.
(SFC, 5/29/09, p.A2)

2009 May 30, Susan Boyle (48),
Scottish singing sensation, was been beaten in the televised finals
of "Britain's Got Talent," by the street dance group "Diversity,"
who jumped, kicked and shook their way to victory against her.
"Diversity" mesmerized audiences with a frenetic but perfectly
choreographed dance routine.
(AP, 5/31/09)
2009 May 30, Michelle
Samaraweera (35) was rape and murdered in Walthamstow, England. On
July 4, 2009, Aman Vyas (26), a suspect in her murder and other
sexual assaults, was arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport
just before he boarded a flight for Thailand.
(AP,
7/5/11)(http://michelle-samaraweera.gonetoosoon.org/)

2009 May 31, Britain's PM
Gordon Brown, facing a national uproar over lawmakers claiming
lavish expenses, promised to pursue constitutional reforms including
a proposal to take away legislators' power to decide their own pay.
(AP, 5/31/09)

2009 Jun 2, British media
reported that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is quitting her post
following the scandal over lawmakers' expenses.
(AP, 6/2/09)

2009 Jun 3, British Communities
Secretary Hazel Blears announced she was resigning, the second
British cabinet minister to resign, undermining PM Gordon Brown's
authority and his future as leader of the increasingly out-of-favor
Labor Party. Blears last month agreed to pay more than 13,000 pounds
($21,000) in tax on the sale of a property.
(AP, 6/3/09)
2009 Jun 3, A court in Laos
found Samantha Orobator (20), a pregnant British woman, guilty of
trafficking heroin and sentenced her to life in prison. Under a pact
signed last month by Laos and Britain that still needs ratification,
Orobator could be extradited to serve her time in Britain. On Aug 6
Orobator returned to Britain to serve the remainder of her sentence,
just weeks before she was due to give birth.
(AP, 6/3/09)(AP, 8/6/09)

2009 Jun 4, British naturalist
Sir David Attenborough won Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias
social sciences prize for his "great contributions to the defense of
life and conservation of our planet."
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, About 375 million
voters across the 27-nation European Union began 4 days of voting,
to appoint candidates to 736 seats on the assembly in the
second-largest election in the world after India's. Voting began in
Britain and the Netherlands.
(AP, 6/4/09)

2009 Jun 5, British PM Gordon
Brown shook up his Cabinet in hopes of hanging on to his job in the
midst of a scandal over lawmakers' expenses, a string of top-level
resignations and catastrophic results expected in local elections.
Alan Johnson confirmed he has been named home secretary in a
reshuffle carried out by PM Brown.
(AP, 6/5/09)(AFP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 5, The
Anglo-Australian firm Rio Tinto cancelled its controversial tie-up
with China's Chinalco in favor of a joint venture with fierce rival
BHP Billiton and a 15.2 billion US dollar rights issue.
(AFP, 6/5/09)

2009 Jun 8, Final results
showed a British far-right party won its first-ever parliamentary
seats in EU elections. The British National Party, which does not
accept nonwhite members and calls for the "voluntary repatriation"
of immigrants, won two of Britain's 72 seats in the European
Parliament. Austria's Freedom Party, which also campaigned on an
anti-Islam platform, more than doubled its share of the vote to
13.1%. Hungary's Jobbik party, which describes itself as
Euro-skeptic and anti-immigration and wants police to crack down on
what it calls "Gypsy crime," won three of the country's 22 seats and
almost 15% of the vote. The Greater Romania Party, which is, among
other things, pro-religion, anti-gay and anti-Hungarian, made
surprise gains, winning almost 9% of the vote and taking two of
Romania's 33 seats. A bloc of center-right parties remained the
largest group.
(AP, 6/8/09)
2009 Jun 8, In Britain van
maker LDV was placed in administration after the collapse of a
rescue deal by Malaysian firm Weststar collapsed. Up to 850 jobs and
thousands more in the supply chain were threatened. The company,
owned by Russian giant GAZ, applied to Birmingham County Court for
administrators to be appointed.
(AFP, 6/8/09)

2009 Jun 10, Millions of
Londoners faced a grim commute, taking boats, buses and bicycles or
walking in the rain as a strike by subway workers crippled the
city's subway system.
(AP, 6/10/09)

2009 Jun 11, The London subway
workersí strike continued for the second day in a row shutting down
much of the city's Underground network. The strike ended as
Transport for London agreed with workers to restart talks.
(AP, 6/11/09)(SFC, 6/12/09, p.A2)

2009 Jun 15, Virgin Media, the
cable TV operator owned by entrepreneur Richard Branson, launched a
new kind of music download subscription service with Universal, the
world's largest music company.
(AP, 6/15/09)

2009 Jun 16, The British
government declared a goal for Britain become the world's "digital
capital" by building cutting-edge broadband, telecoms and media
infrastructure to cement its role as a "global economic powerhouse."
(AFP, 6/16/09)
2009 Jun 16, The $13.5 billion
takeover of Barclays Global Investors by BlackRock was finalized.
This created the worldís largest asset manager.
(Econ, 6/20/09, p.73)(Econ, 9/3/11, p.74)
2009 Jun 16, A new hydrogen car
designed for use in cities and backed by Sebastian Piech, a relative
of the founder of German luxury sportscar maker Porsche, was
unveiled in London. The two-seater Riversimple Urban Car can travel
240 miles without refueling, weighs just 350 kilograms (770 pounds)
and has a top speed of 50 miles per hour.
(AFP, 6/16/09)

2009 Jun 18, The Bank of
Scotland said Fred Goodwin, its disgraced former boss, has agreed to
take a 40% pension cut, after widespread pressure to do so. He will
see his annual pension reduced to 342,500 pounds from 555,000
pounds. The agreement was condemned by trade unions who said it did
not go far enough.
(AFP, 6/18/09)

2009 Jun 19, The bodies of two
men were handed over to the British embassy in the Iraqi capital
with the Foreign Office saying the remains were "highly likely" to
be those of Jason Swindlehurst (38) and Jason Creswell (39). They
were among four guards protecting Peter Moore when around 40 heavily
armed militants seized all five men at the finance ministry in
central Baghdad on May 29, 2007.
(AP, 6/22/09)

2009 Jun 20, Zimbabwean PM
Morgan Tsvangirai was booed and shouted down by exiles during a
speech in London when he pleaded with them to return home to help
rebuild the shattered country.
(AFP, 6/21/09)

2009 Jun 22, Britain pledged an
extra five million pounds in aid to Zimbabwe, hailing progress under
a new unity government but urging more reform after landmark talks
between leaders of the two countries.
(AFP, 6/22/09)

2009 Jun 23, In Britain wildcat
strikes spread to oil refineries and power plants across the
country. Thousands of workers demonstrated outside the Lindsey
terminal in Lincolnshire, where almost 650 contract workers were
sacked by French oil giant Total last week.
(AFP, 6/23/09)

2009 Jun 28, Iranian media
reported that eight local British embassy staff were detained for an
alleged role in postelection protests.
(AP, 6/28/09)

2009 Jul 1, British actress
Mollie Sugden (86), best-known for her role as Mrs. Slocombe in the
television comedy series "Are You Being Served?" (1972-1985), died.
(Reuters, 7/2/09)

2009 Jul 2, A British RAF
Tornado fighter aircraft crashed in a remote area of Scotland.
(AFP, 7/2/09)

2009 Jul 3, In London a fire
ripped through the 12-story Lakanal House block of Sceaux Gardens
Estate, a 1960s-era public housing block in south London,
killing six people including a newborn baby.
(AFP, 7/4/09)
2009 Jul 3, Ayatollah Ahmad
Jannati, a top Iranian cleric, said that some of the detained
Iranian staffers of the British Embassy in Tehran will be put on
trial, and he accused Britain of a role in instigating widespread
protests that erupted over the country's disputed presidential
election.
(AP, 7/3/09)

2009 Jul 5, Terry Herbert (55),
an unemployed treasure hunter, unearthed the biggest hoard of
Anglo-Saxon gold and silver ever found in a country field in
Staffordshire. The trove of at least 1,350 items, including five
kilos (11 pounds) of gold and a smaller amount of silver, was found
by Herbert with a metal detector near his home in Burntwood, some 15
miles north of Birmingham. It is believed to date from the seventh
century AD, and may have belonged to Saxon royalty. It was later
valued at more than three million pounds, to be split equally
between the man who found it and the owner of the land.
(AFP, 9/24/09)(AFP,
11/26/09)(www.nydailynews.com/topics/Terry+Herbert)

2009 Jul 7, British officials
unveiled a memorial of 52 steel pillars in a London park, one for
each victim of the July 7, 2005, attacks on the city's transit
system.
(AP, 7/7/09)

2009 Jul 8, The British
government set out plans to toughen regulation of its banking
sector, including greater oversight of bonuses paid to staff.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, British scientists
claimed to have created human sperm from embryonic stem cells for
the first time. Several critics said the sperm cells were clearly
abnormal.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A5)

2009 Jul 10, Britainís the last
ever Royal Show closed in Warwickshire. The agricultural jamboree,
intended to spread innovation among farmers, ended a 170 year run.
(Econ, 7/11/09, p.57)
2009 Jul 10, In Afghanistan 8
British soldiers were reported killed over the last 24 hours. A US
service member wounded in June in Afghanistan died in the US.
(AP, 7/11/09)(AP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 10, In Switzerland
British conductor Edward Downes (b.1924) died with his wife Joan
(74) at an assisted suicide clinic. He was a longtime stalwart at
the Royal Opera and maestro of the first-ever performance at
Sydney's iconic Opera House.
(AP, 7/14/09)

2009 Jul 13, British and
Israeli officials said Britain has revoked several licenses granted
to British companies to sell weapons parts to Israel because of
concerns over their use in Israel's recent war in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/13/09)

2009 Jul 15, Luxury carmaker
Jaguar, owned by India's Tata Motors, announced it would end
Liverpool production of its X-Type car by the end of the year with
the loss of up to 300 jobs.
(AFP, 7/15/09)

2009 Jul 17, Leszek Kolakowski
(b.1927), Polish-born Oxford philosopher and historian of ideas,
died in Oxford. ďWe Learn history not in order to know how to behave
or how to succeed, but to know who we are." His work included the
3-volume series ďMain currents of Marxism: Its Rise, Growth and
Dissolution" (1976).
(Econ, 8/1/09,
p.76)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leszek_Ko%C5%82akowski)

2009 Jul 25, In Britain a new
poll was released showing solid support for the right to die. The
Royal College of Nursing said it was adopting a neutral stance on
the issue after its research showed nurses were divided. The British
Medical Association remained opposed.
(AP, 7/25/09)

2009 Jul 28, A majority of
people in Britain see the Afghan war as impossible to win, according
to a new poll taken amid steeply rising casualties and growing
government emphasis on finding a political solution to the conflict.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 28, Britain said it
will withdraw its remaining 100-odd troops in Iraq to Kuwait by the
end of the month after the Iraqi parliament failed to pass a deal
allowing them to stay to protect oil platforms and provide training.
(AP, 7/28/09)

2009 Jul 29, In Zimbabwe the
British Broadcasting Corp. resumed broadcasting for the first time
since it was banned in 2001. The five-month-old coalition government
said it also was considering allowing CNN back.
(AP, 7/30/09)

2009 Jul 30, South African
President Jacob Zuma accepted "very substantial damages" from
Britain's Guardian newspaper over an article that wrongly suggested
he was a rapist.
(AP, 7/30/09)

2009 Jul 31, Britain's defense
ministry said Sikh soldiers have begun guarding the monarch and her
treasures. ďRegiments take it in turn to stand in for the Household
Division and it just happens that two of the soldiers this time
round are Sikh."
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, Anuradha Koirala,
the founder of Nepalese charity Maiti Nepal, said British actress
Joanna Lumley has agreed to be its international ambassador. The
charity helps victims of human trafficking.
(AFP, 7/31/09)

2009 Jul, Latviaís leading
newspaper, Diena, along with sister publication Dienas Bizness, was
bought by Luxembourg based Nedela S.A. in a highly clandestine
transaction. The deal was initially structured as a loan to
Tralmaks' company Nedela, allowing it to buy the two papers from
then-owner, Sweden's Bonnier Business Press. The loan was later
restructured, placing the Rowlands as the new owners. The Rowland
Capital family office runs an asset management business, Blackfish
Capital Management, a London based company.
(http://tinyurl.com/yjgb4ls)(Econ, 10/17/09,
p.64)

2009 Aug 6, Two well-dressed
thieves walked into a London Bond Street jewelry store and, after
brandishing handguns at shop workers, made off with $65 million
worth of gems in one of Britain's biggest jewelry heists. The arrest
of one suspect was announced on Aug 12. On Sep 7 a 9th suspect,
David Joseph (22), was detained. On June 25, 2010, Aman Kassaye (24)
was convicted for his role in the robbery. On Aug 6, 2010, Kassaye
was sentenced to 23 years in jail. Three other men involved in the
robbery, Solomun Beyene, Clinton Mogg and Thomas Thomas, were
sentenced to 16 years each. Two others were cleared by the court.
(AP, 8/12/09)(SFC, 8/13/09, p.A2)(SFC, 9/8/09,
p.A2)(AFP, 6/25/10)(AP, 8/6/10)
2009 Aug 6, In western
Afghanistan four American service members were killed in a roadside
bombing. 3 British paratroopers were killed after their armored
vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb and Taliban opened fire during a
patrol with Afghan forces north of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province.
Roadside bombs killed 5 policemen in Kandahar's Arghandab district.
An airstrike in Zabul province killed 3 suspected militants who were
planting a bomb on a road.
(AP, 8/6/09)(AP, 8/7/09)

2009 Aug 7, Britainís Ministry
of Justice said Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs (79) has been
officially released from his prison sentence. Biggs earned notoriety
for his role in the 1963 Great Train Robbery, for which he was
sentenced to 30 years in prison. Escaping, he spent 35 years as a
celebrity fugitive, living a party lifestyle in Brazil before
returning home.
(AFP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, James Robinson
(71), a former California priest, arrived at London's Heathrow
Airport after being extradited from the United States. He was
charged with sexually abusing young boys when he served in the
United Kingdom between 1959 and 1983.
(AP, 8/8/09)

2009 Aug 9, Iraqi authorities
arrested Daniel Fitzsimmons, a British contractor, on murder charges
over the shooting deaths of a British and an Australian contractor
in Baghdad's protected Green Zone. Two employees of ArmorGroup Iraq,
identified as Paul McGuigan of Britain and Darren Hoare of
Australia, were killed in the firearms incident. On Feb 28, 2011, An
Iraqi court convicted Fitzsimmons and sentenced him to 20 years in
prison, making him the first Westerner convicted in an Iraqi court
since the 2003 US invasion.
(AP, 8/9/09)(AP, 8/10/09)(AP, 2/28/11)

2009 Aug 11, Liechtenstein
raised the gate on its tax-haven fortress, making a deal enabling
London to snare about 5,000 British accounts holders with up to 3.0
billion pounds in secret deposits.
(AFP, 8/11/09)

2009 Aug 15, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomb exploded outside the main gate of NATO's
headquarters five days before presidential elections, killing seven
and wounding 91 in the biggest attack in the Afghan capital in six
months. A British soldier succumbed to injuries sustained while out
on foot patrol in Helmand province, becoming the 201st British
military fatality in Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/15/09)(AFP, 8/16/09)

2009 Aug 19, London's
Metropolitan Police said two men were arrested in the Aug 6 robbery
of $66 million in jewelry. The Barnes Flying Squad, a specialist
unit that deals with armed robberies and high value thefts, made the
arrests.
(AP, 8/20/09)

2009 Aug 20, Kenny MacAskill,
Scotlandís justice secretary, freed Abdel Baset al-Megrahi (57),
former Libyan intelligence agent and alleged Lockerbie bomber (Dec
21, 1988), on compassionate grounds after eight years in jail
allowing him to go home to Libya to die. Al-Megrahi has terminal
prostate cancer and has been given less than three months to live.
In 2010 Professor Karol Sikora, who assessed for the Libyan
authorities, told The Sunday Times it was "embarrassing" that he had
outlived his three-month prognosis and that al-Megrahi could survive
for 10 years or longer. It was later reported that BP had promoted
the deal in order to protect a $900 million oil and gas exploration
deal off the Libyan Mediterranean coast.
(AP, 8/20/09)(Econ, 8/29/09, p.48)(AP,
7/03/10)(SFC, 7/16/10, p.A2)

2009 Aug 22, Vicki Cruse (40)
from Santa Paula, Calif., died in an accident during the World
Aerobatic Championships at Britain's Silverstone motor racing
circuit. She was a former member of the US national aerobatics team
and was the first woman to qualify to race in her class at the Reno
National Championship Air Races.
(AP, 8/22/09)

2009 Aug 25, Four Ethiopian
athletes, two women and two men, fled their hotel in London and
failed to make a connecting flight to Edinburgh ahead of the Falkirk
Cup athletics event.
(AFP, 8/26/09)

2009 Aug 27, Mike Perham (17)
became the youngest person to sail solo around the world with
assistance, as he entered British waters after 156 days at sea. The
Guinness Book of World Records created a new category for Perham:
youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe solo, supported. His
father, Peter, sailed in a boat behind him, but did not offer
assistance, which Guinness defines as being accompanied on the boat
by another human being.
(AFP, 8/27/09)

2009 Aug 28, PM Gordon Brown
said Britain will commit 665 million pounds ($1.08 billion) in aid
to help Pakistan stabilize its violent border areas and tackle the
underlying causes of extremism.
(AP, 8/28/09)
2009 Aug 28, Iceland's
parliament approved a controversial deal to pay back billions of
euros (dollars) lost by British and Dutch savers in the collapse of
the online Icesave bank. The deal provided for the payment of 3.8
billion euros by 2023 to the British and Dutch governments for the
compensation they forked out to disgruntled savers.
(AFP, 8/28/09)

2009 Aug 29, Britainís PM
Gordon Brown made a surprise visit to Afghanistan, where he pledged
to speed up the training of Afghan security forces.
(AFP, 8/29/09)
2009 Aug 29, Britainís Cairn
Energy began pumping crude from a vast oilfield in the Indian desert
state of Rajasthan that is set to increase the country's crude
output by 20 percent.
(AFP, 8/29/09)
2009 Aug 14, Britain removed
Michael Misick, the elected premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands
as well as the cabinet and assembly due to systemic corruption. The
constitution was suspended for 2 years and the population of 38,000
would be run for the next 2 years by a governor representing Queen
Elizabeth.
(Econ, 8/22/09, p.34)

2009 Aug 30, British police
estimated that about 220,000 people turned up to dance, drink and
eat jerk chicken for the first of two days of the Notting Hill
Carnival in west London. The Afro-Caribbean carnival began the 1950s
in response to deteriorating race relations, and has been based in
Notting Hill since 1964.
(AFP, 8/31/09)

2009 Sep 5, The Group of 20
rich and developing countries held talks in London. They were
expected to commit to further efforts to boost growth, despite
fledging signs of an economic recovery.
(AP, 9/5/09)
2009 Sep 5, In Britain racially
charged violence erupted between a group protesting Islamic
extremism and counter-demonstrators in the central city of
Birmingham. Authorities arrested 90 people. The clashes erupted when
a rally by the English Defense League ran into counter-demonstrators
including anti-fascists and youths of South Asian descent.
(AP, 9/6/09)
2009 Sep 5, Keith Waterhouse
(80) a prolific British author, journalist and playwright, died.
Waterhouse was best known for the 1959 novel Billy Liar -- the story
of a day-dreamer who plans his escape from a depressing job as an
undertaker. It was made into a film in 1963.
(AFP, 9/5/09)

2009 Sep 6, British PM Gordon
Brown said he would support compensation claims against Libya by
families of IRA victims who say Tripoli helped to arm the
guerrillas.
(Reuters, 9/6/09)

2009 Sep 7, Three British
Muslims were convicted of conspiring to kill thousands of civilians
by blowing up trans-Atlantic flights in mid-air with liquid
explosives disguised as soft drinks. Abdulla Ahmed Ali (28), Assad
Sarwar (29), and Tanvir Hussain (28) were found guilty of conspiracy
to murder by detonating explosives on aircraft. The men's arrests in
August 2006 had led to huge travel chaos. 5 others were also tried.
Umar Islam was convicted of conspiracy to murder. The jury failed to
reach a verdict on 3 others. Donald Stewart-Whyte was cleared.
(AP, 9/7/09)(Econ, 9/12/09, p.62)
2009 Sep 7, US snacks company
Kraft Foods launched a 10.2 billion pound bid for its British rival
Cadbury, with traders expecting the price to run higher as takeover
activity returns to the markets. Cadbury immediately rejected the
offer.
(AP, 9/7/09)

2009 Sep 8, The British
government said the last remaining armed paramilitary groups in
Northern Ireland had pledged to decommission all their weapons
within six months. Hours later army experts in Northern Ireland
defused a massive roadside bomb, averting what could have been a
"devastating" explosion in the long-troubled British province.
(AP, 9/8/09)(AFP, 9/8/09)
2009 Sep 8, A British judge
sentenced Neil Lewington (44), a racist who planned to attack people
he considered "non-British," to at least six years in jail for
terrorist offenses.
(AP, 9/8/09)
2009 Sep 8, Deutsche Telekom AG
and France Telecom SA said they intend to combine their British
mobile phone units, shaking up the country's intensely competitive
market and forming the country's biggest mobile operator. Analysts
said Nokia Siemens Networks, the key equipment vendor to British
operations of Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, had most to lose
in the merger.
(AP, 9/8/09)(Reuters, 9/8/09)

2009 Sep 14, A British judge
sentenced Abdulla Ahmed Ali (28), the ringleader of a plot to bring
down trans-Atlantic planes with liquid explosives, to at least 40
years in jail and three fellow British Muslims to long prison
sentences.
(AP, 9/14/09)

2009 Sep 17, Brixton, England,
officially launched Brixton pounds (B£), a local currency
fixed at a one-to-one exchange rate with sterling. It aimed to boost
the local economy and build a mutual support system amongst
independent businesses.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brixton#Brixton_Pound)(Econ, 1/7/17,
p.56)
2009 Sep 17, In Britain the
Communication Workers Union called for a national walkout following
a rolling program of local postal strikes that began in July. The
strikes over higher pay and job security have already caused a
backlog of 20 million letters and parcels, about a quarter of the
Royal Mail's daily volume.
(AP, 9/17/09)
2009 Sep 17, In London the
musical play ďEnron," written by Lucy Prebble, opened at the Royal
Court Theater.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.90)

2009 Sep 22, Britainís Office
of Fair Trading (OFT) said it has imposed fines totaling 129.5
million pounds on 103 construction firms in England which it has
found had colluded with competitors on building contracts.
(AFP, 9/22/09)

2009 Sep 23, England's top
prosecutor unveiled new guidelines that could decriminalize many
forms of assisted suicide, saying that most people who help close
friends or family kill themselves aren't likely to face charges.
(AP, 9/23/09)

2009 Sep 28, Britainís Business
Secretary Peter Mandelson said the government will extend its car
scrapping scheme with extra funding for an additional 100,000 cars
and vans.
(AP, 9/28/09)

2009 Sep 30, The British Office
of Fair Trading said six recruitment companies have together been
fined almost 40 million pounds for price-fixing and the boycott of a
rival company. They had all breached Britain's 1998 Competition Act.
(AFP, 9/30/09)

2009 Oct 1, Britainís Serious
Fraud Office announced that it would seek prosecution of defense
equipment firm BAE Systems over alleged corruption involving
contracts with European and African nations.
(AFP, 10/1/09)
2009 Oct 1, Benjamin Chocat
(20), from Choisy-Le-Roi south of Paris, and his mother Christiane
Chocat (51), a councilor in Lumigny-Nesles-Ormeaux southeast of
Paris, helped to smuggle at least 13 men and 3 women in a hire van
on a ferry from Cherbourg in France to Portsmouth. The Vietnamese
immigrants were hidden behind boxes of shrimp noodles.
(AP, 1/4/10)

2009 Oct 2, In England a Sikh
policeman was awarded 10,000 pounds in compensation by a tribunal
after bosses ordered him to remove his turban for riot training.
(AFP, 10/2/09)

2009 Oct 5, The first official
history of Britain's MI5 was published, ending 100 years of secrecy
over British spying during two world wars, the Cold War and the
current fight against Islamic extremism. "The Defence of The Realm:
The Authorized History of MI5" was written by Cambridge University
historian Christopher Andrew, who was given virtually unrestricted
access to some 400,000 files, and even joined the domestic
intelligence agency himself.
(AFP, 10/5/09)(Econ, 10/10/09, p.87)

2009 Oct 6, Hilary Mantel won
the 2009 Man Booker Prize for her historical novel ďWolf Hall." It
covered the period Henry VIIIís divorce from Catherine of Aragon and
marriage to Anne Boleyn. A sequel, ďBring Up the Bodies," was
published in 2012.
(Econ, 10/10/09,
p.89)(www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1291)(Econ, 5/5/12,
p.81)
2009 Oct 6, In London the play
ďThe Power of Yes," written by Sir David Hare, opened at the Royal
National Theater.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.90)

2009 Oct 7, The first
British-built Honda Jazz auto rolled off the assembly line after
production was switched from Japan in a move the manufacturer hopes
will end a troubled year for the factory.
(AFP, 10/7/09)

2009 Oct 8, Britain's postal
workers agreed to launch a nationwide strike after months of rolling
regional strikes over pay and job security. The Communication
Workers Union said that 76% of more than 80,000 union members voted
in favor of the action. The union was required to give seven days
notice before any strike.
(AP, 10/8/09)

2009 Oct 10, British police in
fluorescent jackets stood between hundreds of anti-Islam protesters
and anti-racist counter-demonstrators in Manchester, arresting 48
people in a bid to keep the peace.
(AP, 10/10/09)

2009 Oct 12, Britainís PM
Gordon Brown announced on Monday a 16-billion-pound sale of state
assets including a rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel
to cut soaring debt caused by economic crisis.
(AFP, 10/12/09)

2009 Oct 13, Iraqi lawmakers
approved the return of a limited number of British troops to Iraq to
help protect the country's southern oil ports, an area where Iraq is
lagging in its ability to provide security. A total of 254
parliamentary deputies and senators voted to oust PM Emil Boc, more
than the 236 needed, and 176 voted against. Under the constitution
it was up to Pres. Traian Basescu to name a new prime minister.
(AFP, 10/13/09)

2009 Oct 14, British PM Gordon
Brown ordered hundreds more troops to Afghanistan, pledging to
bolster the international effort on the condition that Britain's
allies also do their fair share to support the war effort. He said
Britain's overall contribution would rise to 9,500 troops, an
increase of about 500.
(AP, 10/14/09)

2009 Oct 15, The far-right
British National Party agreed to change its constitution to let
nonwhite people become members.
(AP, 10/15/09)

2009 Oct 18, Representatives of
the world's biggest carbon polluters began two days of informal
talks in London to map out common ground 50 days before a key UN
climate conference in Copenhagen.
(AFP, 10/18/09)

2009 Oct 21, A Briton who cost
the insurance industry some 1.6 million pounds by staging almost 100
car crashes as part of a scam to win fraudulent payouts, was jailed
for 4-1/2 years. Mohammed Patel (24) charged 500 pounds a time to
stage accidents which enabled fraudsters to claim an average of
17,000 pounds from their insurers.
(Reuters, 10/21/09)
2009 Oct 21, Spanish-owned
airports operator BAA announced the sale of the second busiest hub
Gatwick to a US investment fund for 1.51 billion pounds following an
antitrust ruling.
(AFP, 10/21/09)

2009 Oct 22, More than 8
million people watched British National Party leader Nick Griffin
slam Islam as a wicked faith, express his disgust at homosexuals and
defend the Ku Klux Klan on its "Question Time" program.
(AP, 10/23/09)
2009 Oct 22, British Royal Mail
workers began a two-day strike in a bitter row over pay, conditions
and modernization, causing widespread disruption to mail services.
(AFP, 10/22/09)

2009 Oct 23, British far-right
leader Nick Griffin accused the BBC of mounting a "lynch mob" on him
in a charged appearance on a TV political panel show, and called for
it to be re-recorded.
(AFP, 10/23/09)
2009 Oct 23, British couple
Paul and Rachel Chandler were heading from the Seychelles to
Tanzania in their yacht, the Lynn Rival, when the distress signal
was sent. Reports followed that the couple were seized by pirates.
The couple were taken to the Somali pirate lair of Harardhere and $7
million was later demanded for their release. The Chandlers were
released on Nov 14, 2010, after a ransom of at least 750,000 dollars
was paid.
(AP, 10/27/09)(AFP, 10/29/09)(AP, 10/31/09)(AFP,
11/14/10)

2009 Oct 25, Energy giant BP
signed a deal with Jordan to explore for natural gas reserves in the
Risheh field near the border with Iraq in an investment that could
reach billions of dollars.
(AFP, 10/25/09)

2009 Oct 26, British-based
Barclays bought the home loans and savings arm of insurer Standard
Life for ₤226 million, pursuing its expansion strategy after the
part-purchase of failed US titan Lehman Brothers last year. Standard
Life Bank, which has no retail branch network, was launched back in
1998.
(AFP, 10/26/09)

2009 Oct 27, Algeria and
Britain signed a new defense agreement. An embassy spokeswoman said
"This outline agreement aims to regularize cooperation between the
two countries in defense matters, particularly the training of
Algerian officers in Great Britain."
(AFP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 27, An Italian appeals
court upheld the conviction of British lawyer David Mills for
accepting a bribe to lie in court to protect Silvio Berlusconi. A
lower court found Mills guilty of corruption in May and sentenced
him to 4 1/2 years. In 2010 Italyís highest court overturned a
guilty verdict against Mills, ruling that the stature of limitations
had expired.
(AP, 10/27/09)(SFC, 2/25/10, p.A2)

2009 Oct 28, Britainís PM
Gordon Brown welcomed Indian President Pratibha Patil on the second
day of her state visit which he said showed growing ties between the
two nations.
(AFP, 10/28/09)

2009 Oct 30, The British
government sacked David Nutt, the nationís top drug advisor,
following his remarks that marijuana, ecstasy and LSD were less
dangerous than alcohol.
(SFC, 10/31/09, p.S2)(Econ, 11/7/09, p.54)
2009 Oct 30, The BBC said Anton
Turner (38), a British guide working on a children's television show
in Tanzania, was killed after being charged by an elephant. The show
"Serious Explorers" followed David Livingstone's famous 19th-century
trek across the African continent.
(AP, 10/31/09)

2009 Oct 31, A British
government official said the Royal Bank of Scotland, Northern Rock,
and Lloyds Banking Group are to sell off as many as 700 branches in
the next few years in exchange for the public aid they received
during the economic meltdown.
(AP, 10/31/09)

2009 Nov 3, Britain pressed
ahead with a fresh wave of restructuring in its crisis-ravaged
banking system, as Lloyds Banking Group PLC sought at least 21
billion pounds ($34.2 billion) through a record share issue and debt
swap. World stock markets mostly fell amid renewed concerns about
the banking sector after Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland PLC got
more government help and Switzerland's UBS AG booked another massive
charge.
(AP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 3, The British
government said survivors of the Darfur conflict will no longer be
deported from Britain, after concerns about a deterioration in
conditions in the Sudanese capital. The Home Office said asylum
seekers will have the right to remain in Britain for up to five
years, or until the situation improves in Sudan.
(AFP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 3, Afghanistan's Pres.
Karzai welcomed his new term, by reaching out to opponents and
promising to banish the corruption that has undermined his
administration. In northern Kunduz province, Afghan and
international troops have been fighting for two days to take the
Taliban-held town of Ghor Tapa. About 200 insurgents were holed up
in the town, including foreign fighters, mostly Chechens. 11
insurgents and one Afghan soldier were killed. A "rogue" Afghan
policeman gunned down five British soldiers at a checkpoint in
Helmand province, fuelling growing questions about the Afghan
mission.
(AP, 11/3/09)(AFP, 11/4/09)

2009 Nov 4, British lawmakers
will be banned from using taxpayers' money to make mortgage payments
on second homes or hiring family members as staff under new rules
published today in the wake of a scandal over legislators'
allowances.
(AP, 11/4/09)

2009 Nov 6, British Airways
revealed a quadrupling of net losses in its first half, and axed an
extra 1,200 jobs in an "essential" cost-reduction program.
(AP, 11/6/09)
2009 Nov 6, Two British
ticketholders shared a jackpot of 90 million pounds ($150 million)
in the EuroMillions competition, the largest lottery prizes ever
paid out in the UK.
(AP, 11/7/09)

2009 Nov 7, British boxer David
Haye (29) won the WBA Heavyweight crown against Russian Nikolai
Valuev in a 12-round bout in Germany. Haye became the first Briton
to hold a world heavyweight crown since Lennox Lewis retired in
2003.
(AFP, 11/8/09)

2009 Nov 10, The
hotly-anticipated video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" was
launched in Britain amid a political row over its levels of
violence.
(AFP, 11/10/09)

2009 Nov 11, The British Home
Office said DNA of innocent people arrested then cleared without
charge will be held by the government for no more than six years.
(AFP, 11/11/09)

2009 Nov 12, British Airways
PLC and Spanish airline Iberia SA confirmed they are holding
separate board meetings about a long-awaited merger, responding to
feverish speculation that has sent the companies' shares soaring.
(AP, 11/12/09)

2009 Nov 13, British
adventurers Mick Dawson and Chris Martin completed a 189-day record
voyage, begun on May 8, rowing their 23-foot, Kevlar boat across the
Pacific from Choshi, Japan, to San Francisco.
(SFC, 11/14/09, p.A1)

2009 Nov 15, British officials
said PM Gordon Brown will apologize to thousands of British children
who were shipped to new lives overseas, where many say they suffered
neglect and abuse. Thousands of poor British children were sent to
Australia, Canada and other former colonies under the Child Migrants
Program, which ended in the 1960s. Many ended up in institutions or
as farm laborers. The British government has estimated that a total
of 150,000 British children may have been shipped abroad between
1618 ó when a group was sent to the Virginia Colony ó and 1967, most
of them from the late 19th century onwards.
(AP, 11/15/09)
2009 Nov 15, Dr. Brooke
Magnanti (34), who works for The Bristol Initiative for Research of
Child Health, revealed herself to be the woman behind the nom de
plume "Belle de Jour," which is the title of a 1967 French film
starring Catherine Deneuve. Magnanti kept a weblog of her antics in
2003-2004, which were turned into a best-selling book, "The Intimate
Adventures of a London Call Girl." Her memoirs were adapted into a
hit 16-episode television series "Secret Diary of a Call Girl,"
which starred Billie Piper and was screened in countries around the
world.
(AFP, 11/16/09)

2009 Nov 16, In London,
England, Geeta Aulakh (28), a receptionist at a local Asian radio
station and mother of two young boys, was found by a passerby in
Greenford near Ealing. A week later Sher Singh (18) was court
charged with the mutilation and murder of the Asian mother of 2
young boys. Family members say Aulakh, who had recently separated
from her husband of 11 years and was filing for divorce, had been
threatened in the months leading up to her death.
(AFP, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 16, Australiaís PM
Kevin Rudd issued an historic apology to thousands of impoverished
British children shipped to Australia with the promise of a better
life. But his government ruled out paying compensation for the abuse
and neglect that many suffered.
(AP, 11/16/09)

2009 Nov 19, Herman Van Rompuy,
Belgium's Prime Minister and former economist, was named the
European Union's first permanent President. Baroness Catherine
Ashton, Britain's European Commissioner, was appointed as the EUís
Foreign Minister-designate, with the unwieldy title of High
Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
(AP, 11/19/09)

2009 Nov 20, In northern
England military helicopters winched dozens of people to safety and
emergency workers in inflatable boats rescued scores more as floods
swamped the picturesque Lake District. One police officer was
missing and feared dead after a bridge was swept away.
(AP, 11/20/09)

2009 Nov 21, The University of
East Anglia, in eastern England, said computer hackers have broken
into a server at a well-respected climate change research center and
posted hundreds of private e-mails and documents online, stoking
debate over whether some scientists have overstated the case for
man-made climate change. More than a decade of correspondence
between leading British and US scientists was included in about
1,000 e-mails and 3,000 documents posted on Web sites following the
security breach last week.
(AP, 11/21/09)

2009 Nov 25, British PM Gordon
Brown says 10 NATO nations are ready to offer about 5,000 more
troops for the war in Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/25/09)
2009 Nov 25, The British
government said Scotland will be given greater tax-raising powers
under the biggest shake-up of the nation's finances for 30 years.
(Reuters, 2/16/12)
2009 Nov 25, Iran stopped the
yacht, ďKingdom of Bahrain," owned by Sail Bahrain as it sailed from
Bahrain to the Gulf city of Dubai. It had been due to join the
360-mile (580km) Dubai-Muscat Offshore Sailing Race, which was to
begin Nov. 26. Five British sailors were detained. The 5 sailors
were released on Dec 2.
(AP, 11/30/09)(AP, 12/2/09)

2009 Nov 30, Scotland First
Minister Alex Salmond set out plans which could pave the way for a
referendum on independence.
(Reuters, 2/16/12)

2009 Dec 2, Iran freed five
British sailors detained last week when their racing yacht drifted
accidentally into Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf. Britain said
it was delighted with the release and praised Tehran's handling of
the incident. The Fars agency reported that analyst Saeed Leilaz,
known for his criticism of the government, was sentenced to nine
years in prison for possession of classified documents. The
Revolutionary Court also slapped the brother-in-law of opposition
leader Mir Houssein Mousavi with a one-year sentence.
(AP, 12/2/09)

2009 Dec 7, ITV, the British TV
channel behind hit show "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!",
apologized for the death of a rat during filming in Australia, as
the stars who killed it faced police charges.
(AFP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, Afghan
lawmakers, refusing to be a rubber stamp, demanded a full, not
partial, list of President Hamid Karzai's new Cabinet, the first
test of the embattled leader's commitment to clean up graft and
bribery in his government. Kabul Mayor Abdul Ahad Sahebi 963) was
found guilty of awarding a contract for a city project without
competition. An Afghan court sentenced him to four years in jail and
ordered him to repay more than $16,000 involved in the contract. A
British soldier from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment was
killed in Nad-e Ali in southern Helmand Province. He became
Britainís 100th soldier to die in the current war.
(AP, 12/7/09)(AFP, 12/8/09)(AP, 12/9/09)

2009 Dec 8, Ratings agency
Moody's warned of a "fiscal crisis" lasting "several years" in
Britain, France, Germany and the United States, but saw no immediate
threat to their top AAA credit assessments.
(AFP, 12/8/09)

2009 Dec 9, The British
government fired a broadside at banks, slapping a 50% tax rate on
bonuses over 25,000 pounds to recoup cash spent saving the sector.
(AFP, 12/9/09)

2009 Dec 15, British Airways
sought a court injunction to prevent a 12-day strike by cabin crew
that would cause havoc for one million travelers over the Christmas
and New Year's holidays.
(AP, 12/15/09)
2009 Dec 15, Israelís PM
Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the issuing in Britain of an arrest
warrant against Israel's former foreign minister Tzipi Livni for
alleged war crimes. She was targeted by Palestinians for her role in
last winter's brutal offensive against Hamas in Gaza, when she was
foreign minister.
(AP, 12/15/09)

2009 Dec 16, The British board
of the UK Payments Council, the body for setting payment strategy in
Britain, agreed to set a target date of October 31, 2018 for winding
up the check clearing system.
(AP, 12/16/09)

2009 Dec 19, Four passenger
trains broke down in the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France,
stranding more than 2,000 passengers for hours, many without
heating, light or water. Fatigued passengers arrived in London 10
hours late after a long night trapped on trains. The problem began
because of the abrupt temperature change when trains traveled
through extremely cold air in France and then entered the warm
tunnel.
(AP, 12/19/09)

2009 Dec 22, Budget airline
EasyJet cancelled about 180 flights due both to the "significant
snowfall" and airport closures across Britain, in a fresh blow to
passengers hoping to travel for the Christmas holidays.
(AFP, 12/22/09)
2009 Dec 22, Eurostar resumed
its high-speed rail service linking Britain, France and Belgium
after a three-day suspension that stranded tens of thousands of
holiday travelers.
(AP, 12/22/09)

2009 Dec 23, Britain banned
several drugs known as "legal highs" amid mounting public concern
about their health risks. Substances including chemical solvent GBL,
often used by nightclub-goers, and BZP, a stimulant similar to
amphetamine, are now illegal, as are herbal smoking products
containing man-made chemicals such as "Spice."
(AFP, 12/23/09)
2009 Dec 23, Thousands of
Eurostar passengers anxious to get away for Christmas battled for
train places out of London as heavy rains and freezing conditions
sparked yet more travel chaos across Europe.
(AFP, 12/23/09)

2009 Dec 30, In Iraq staggered
explosions killed at least 26 people in Ramadi, 13 of them
policemen, and wounded Anbar provincial governor Kassim Mohammad
Fahdlawi as well as some 100 others. Peter Moore, a British hostage
held for over two years by militants, was released safely in
Baghdad. In the town of Khalis, about 50 miles (80km) northeast of
Baghdad, a bomb killed 7 pilgrims taking part in a procession to
commemorate the death of a Shiite revered saint.
(AP, 12/30/09)(Reuters, 12/30/09)(SFC, 12/31/09,
p.A3)

2009 Dan Cruickshank authored
ďThe Secret History of Georgian London: How the Wages of Sin shaped
the Capital."
(Econ, 10/17/09, p.99)
2009 David Horspool authored
ďThe English Rebel: "One Thousand Years of Trouble-Making from the
Normans to the Nineties."
(Econ, 8/8/09, p.73)
2009 The book ďIt's Our Turn to
Eat," written by the veteran British journalist Michaela Wrong, was
published in the UK. It is the story of whistleblower John
Githongo's crusade against political corruption in Kenya. It
portrays President Mwai Kibaki and his ethnic group, despite pledges
to clean up one of the sleaziest bureaucracies in the world, as bent
on making themselves rich and keeping power at all costs.
(AP, 2/25/09)

2009 The English Defence
League, an Islamophobic group, was formed in Luton by a solarium
keeper (26) with the pseudonym Tommy Robinson. On October 13,
2013, Mr. Robinson that he and his right-hand man, Kevin Caroll,
were quitting the EDL because it had been overrun by Nazi
extremists.
(Econ, 10/19/13, p.64)
2009 Britainís Home Office
estimated that 300 major importers brought in drugs and passed them
to some 30,000 wholesalers, who then passed them to some 70,000
street dealers.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.33)
2009 British animal rights
activist Debbie Vincent became the public face of Stop Huntingdon
Animal Cruelty (SHAC) after seven members of the group were jailed
for a total of 50 years for their role in an animal rights campaign.
(AFP, 4/17/14)

2010 Jan 1, In Britain the VAT
returned to 17.5% after 13 months in which it was reduced to 15% to
help combat the economic downturn.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.41)

2010 Jan 3, The US and Britain
closed their embassies in Yemen in the face of al-Qaida threats,
after both countries announced an increase in aid to the government
to fight the terror group linked to the failed attempt to bomb a US
airliner on Christmas.
(AP, 1/3/10)

2010 Jan 4, Irish writer Colm
Toibin was named novelist of the year in Britain's lucrative Costa
Book Awards for his emigrant saga "Brooklyn."
(AP, 1/4/10)

2010 Jan 6, In Britain
unusually heavy snowfall stranded hundreds of motorists, disrupted
trains and shut down schools and airports across the land as the
country suffered through its longest cold snap in nearly 30 years.
(AP, 1/6/10)

2010 Jan 7, Eurostar passengers
faced further disruption after one of its high-speed trains got
stuck for 2 hours in the Channel Tunnel again, weeks after a major
breakdown due to the cold.
(AFP, 1/7/10)

2010 Jan 8, Virgin Money, part
of Richard Branson's Virgin empire, took big strides towards
becoming a major retail bank able to compete in a battered sector
seeking to recover from the financial crisis.
(AFP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, The beleaguered
Eurostar train service cancelled half of its trains between London
and Paris because of freezing temperatures.
(AP, 1/8/10)

2010 Jan 9, British media
reported that Iris Robinson (60), the disgraced wife of Northern
Ireland's leader, will step down as a lawmaker within days as
pressure mounted on Peter Robinson and the province's shaky
coalition government. The reported move follows the revelation that
she had an adulterous relationship with a man nearly 40 years her
junior, and allegations that she solicited tens of thousands of
pounds (dollars) from businessmen to help the teenager launch a
cafe. She was 58 at the time, and the man was 19.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, Germans faced the
cancellation of hundreds of flights as fresh snow blew in from the
south, and Britons shivered through the country's longest cold snap
in three decades as icy weather maintained its grip on Europe.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai presented a second slate of nominees to fill his
Cabinet after parliament rejected 70 percent of his first picks.
Afghan and NATO officials signed an agreement for NATO to hand over
control of the prison at Bagram airbase near Kabul to Afghan
authorities. A blast hit a convoy carrying a provincial council
member from Wardak province, killing a bodyguard and wounding five
others. Another explosion killed one policeman and wounded two in
Kandahar. In southern Helmand province an explosion outside Nawa
village killed a US Marine and Sunday Mirror journalist Rupert Hamer
(39), a veteran war correspondent. Hamer became the first British
journalist killed in the conflict. Photographer Philip Coburn (43)
was seriously wounded.
(AP, 1/9/10)(AFP, 1/9/10)(AP, 1/10/10)

2010 Jan 11, In Britain former
Gurkha soldiers from Nepal lost a test case against Ministry of
Defence over pension rights at the High Court in London.
(AFP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh laid out ambitious plans to make his country a global leader
in solar power as he launched a government initiative to boost use
of the technology. Andy Pag (35) was detained in the western state
of Rajasthan for having an unlicensed satellite phone. He (Andrea
Pagnacco) was ordered held for 14 days while police investigate
whether he is a threat to national security. The London-based
environmental campaigner was traveling around the world in a
biofuel-driven bus. In March ordered to pay a fine for illegally
using a satellite phone and became free to leave India 69 days after
his arrest.
(AFP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/17/10)(AP, 3/21/10)

2010 Jan 12, The European Court
of Human Rights condemned British anti-terror legislation allowing
people to be searched by police without reasonable suspicion of
wrongdoing.
(AFP, 1/12/10)

2010 Jan 13, Heavy snow hit
central London as a fresh whiteout covered much of the country,
forcing airports to close as businesses counted the cost of the
worst winter in decades.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Britainís
Huddersfield University launched an investigation after its students
allegedly started an Internet craze for a Hitler drinking game. The
original page on the social networking site had nearly 12,000
members but has now been shut down, although another similar page
has since been set up.
(AFP, 1/13/10)

2010 Jan 19, The British
government said it will ban drinking contests in bars and force pub
owners to offer patrons tap water in a bid to help tackle the
countryís boozy culture.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, British chocolate
bar maker Cadbury melted into the arms of US giant Kraft in a
multi-billion-dollar deal to create a world leader in food and
confectionery that sparked fears of job losses.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, Swiss bank Credit
Suisse said that it would reduce bonuses paid to its top executives
in London by about 30% in response to a tax announced last month by
British authorities.
(AP, 1/19/10)

2010 Jan 22, The British
government raised its terror threat assessment from substantial to
severe, suggesting an attack was "highly likely", ahead of
international meetings on Yemen and Afghanistan in London next week.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Britain two
brothers, ages 10 & 11, from the Yorkshire village of Edlington
were convicted of torturing and sexually abusing two younger boys in
an ordeal that one of them close to death.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.61)
2010 Jan 22, Sir Percy Cradock
(86), the British diplomat who negotiated the terms for returning
Hong Kong to Chinese rule, died. He was ambassador to Beijing in
1983 when Britain opened negotiations on the hand-over of Hong Kong.
Britain gained an agreement on the principle of "one nation, two
systems" which preserved some of Hong Kong's democratic and economic
freedoms.
(AP, 1/29/10)(Econ, 2/13/10, p.87)

2010 Jan 23, The British
Department for Business Innovation and Skills halted the export of
the ADE651 after a Jan 22 BBC Newsnight investigation challenged the
claims of the company, ATSC. The broadcaster took the key aspects of
the device to a laboratory, which concluded that a component
intended to detect explosives contained technology used to prevent
theft in stores. The government banned its export to Iraq and
Afghanistan because of the risk that it could hurt British and
allied forces.
(AP, 1/23/10)

2010 Jan 25, The British and
Irish governments launched a mission to save Northern Ireland's
unraveling administration, a Catholic-Protestant coalition that the
territory's 1998 peace accord intended would promote a lasting new
era of nonviolent compromise.
(AP, 1/25/10)

2010 Jan 26, The prime
ministers of Britain and Ireland held a second day of talks with
political parties in Northern Ireland as they struggled to keep the
fractious Catholic-Protestant government there from collapsing.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, British actress
Joanna Lumley was named "Oldie of the Year" by the monthly Oldie
magazine for campaigning for the rights of retired Nepalese Gurkha
soldiers wanting to settle in Britain.
(AP, 1/26/10)

2010 Jan 27, The prime
ministers of Britain and Ireland presented a compromise plan to keep
Northern Ireland's fractious politicians from breaking up their
Catholic-Protestant government, but neither side accepted the deal.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Britain world
powers gathered in London for talks on how to tackle Al-Qaeda
militants operating out of Yemen. The conference was called to help
world powers chart a roadmap out of Afghanistan amid rising US and
NATO casualties and falling public support.
(AFP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10)

2010 Jan 28, In Britain world
powers agreed on a timetable for the handover of security duties in
Afghan provinces starting in late 2010. The 70 nations said Pres.
Karzai had promised to crack down on corruption and said a summit in
Kabul later this year would offer specific plans to bolster his
faltering government. The Afghan Taliban dismissed the London
conference as a propaganda ploy and said the London summit will fail
to produce results.
(AP, 1/28/10)(AFP, 1/28/10)

2010 Jan 29, Former British PM
Tony Blair said there had been no "covert" deal with then US
president George W. Bush to invade Iraq in 2003, and robustly
defended his decision to take Britain to war.
(AFP, 1/29/10)

2010 Feb 3, "L'homme qui marche
I" (Walking Man I), a 1961 life-size bronze statue of a man by Swiss
artist Alberto Giacometti, smashed the world record for an art work
at auction, selling in London for £65,001,250.
(AFP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 3, Israel announced
that British and American architects were named winners of its
prestigious Wolf Prize. British architect David Chipperfield was
recognized for overseeing the reconstruction of Berlin's Neues
Museum in a building that had been abandoned since World War II.
American architect Peter Eisenman designed the Holocaust Memorial in
Berlin, inaugurated in 2005.
(AP, 2/3/10)

2010 Feb 4, Britain's Treasury
said it will rush through new legislation after a court ruled the
way it freezes the bank accounts of suspected terrorists was
unlawful. Britainís Supreme Court ruled last week that the
asset-freezing system was unlawful.
(AP, 2/4/10)

2010 Feb 5, Britainís chief
prosecutor said 4 British lawmakers will face criminal charges and
the prospect of jail for alleged shady accounting practices during
Britain's 2009 expense claims scandal. A report issued a day earlier
into the expense scandal ordered 392 current and former British
legislators to repay a total of 1.12 million pounds ($1.7 million).
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Defense giant BAE
Systems said it had agreed to pay fines of nearly 288 million pounds
settle charges brought by Britain's Serious Fraud Office and the US
Department of Justice. The fines, 258 million pounds to the DoJ and
30 million pounds to the SFO, related to investigations into BAE
deals with countries including Tanzania, the Czech Republic, Romania
and South Africa.
(AFP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, A breakthrough deal
to save Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant government gave a new
lease of life to an awkward partnership of former foes that still
must overcome many obstacles to survive. The deal commits the
Northern Ireland Assembly to elect a justice minister March 9 and
Britain to transfer control of more than 20 criminal justice and
law-enforcement agencies to Belfast on April 12.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, British actor Ian
Carmichael (89) died at his home in northern England. He appeared in
a series of comedies for the Boulting Brothers including "Private's
Progress," "Brothers in Law," "Lucky Jim" and "I'm All Right Jack."
Later in his career he played the upper-class twit Bertie Wooster,
and Dorothy L. Sayers suave detective Lord Peter Wimsey, in
television series.
(AP, 2/8/10)

2010 Feb 7, In Afghanistan 2
two British soldiers were killed by an explosion in Sangin in
Helmand Province, taking the death toll in Afghanistan to 255 since
2001. This raised Britain's death toll to that of the Falklands war.
(AFP, 2/8/10)

2010 Feb 8, Iran said it will
cut ties with the British Museum because of the museum's failure to
lend Tehran the Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient Babylonian artifact
described as the world's earliest bill of rights.
(AP, 2/8/10)

2010 Feb 11, British fashion
designer Alexander McQueen (40) was found dead at his London home.
McQueen received recognition from Queen Elizabeth II in 2003, when
she made him a Commander of the British Empire for his fashion
leadership. A Feb 17 coronerís report gave the cause of the fashion
designer's death as asphyxiation and hanging.
(AP, 2/11/10)(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 11, Christopher Grady
(41) drove his car into the freezing into the River Avon in Evesham,
Worcestershire, England, while his daughter was in the passenger
seat. Gabrielle was trapped inside the submerged car for two hours
and died three days later in hospital. His then six-year-old son
Ryan Grady, survived after being rescued from the water by police.
On March 18, 2011, Christopher Grady was convicted of murdering his
daughter.
(AFP, 3/18/11)

2010 Feb 14, British
documentary filmmaker Paul Martin (55) was detained at a Gaza
military tribunal where he was to testify on behalf of a local man
accused of collaborating with Israel. Hamas officials said that he
would detained for 15 days. Martin was released on March 11.
(AP, 2/15/10)(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Feb 14, British author
Dick Francis (b.1920), a former jockey whose thrillers rode high in
best-selling lists for decades, died at his Caribbean home in Grand
Cayman. His first book was a 1957 autobiography titled ďThe sport of
Queens." His first novel, ďDead Cert," came out in 1962 and was
followed by 41 more.
(AFP,
2/14/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Francis)(SFC, 2/15/10,
p.C3)

2010 Feb 15, In London,
England, a 33-year-old man was arrested after the body of a Saudi
man (32) was discovered at the prestigious Landmark Hotel in the
Marylebone area. The suspect claimed to be a member of the Saudi
royal family. Prince Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Nasir Bin Abdulaziz Al
Saud was soon charged for the killing of Bandar Abdullah Abdulaziz.
On Oct 19 the prince was convicted of murder. Photographs of
Abdulaziz stored on a mobile phone had shown that there was a
"sexual element" to the abuse.
(AFP, 2/17/10)(AP, 2/19/10)(AP, 10/19/10)
2010 Feb 15, British Airways
said it would use low-carbon fuel to power part of its fleet from
2014 once Europe's first sustainable jet-fuel plant was built by US
biofuels specialist Solena Group. A plant to be built in London will
convert 500,000 tons of waste into 16 million gallons of green jet
fuel annually.
(AFP, 2/15/10)

2010 Feb 16, Argentinaís Pres.
Cristina Fernandez issued a decree seeking to control all shipping
to and from the Falkland Islands, escalating her fight with Britain
over drilling for oil and gas in the South Atlantic.
(SFC, 2/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 16, Thailand officials
said tests conducted by the government have found that British-made
bomb detectors it bought for a total of $21 million have an accuracy
rate of only 20 percent, but they will continue to be used.
(AP, 2/16/10)

2010 Feb 18, London police
released Ray Gosling, a veteran British TV reporter, on bail after
he was arrested and questioned about claims he made on the air that
he killed his lover who was dying of AIDS.
(AP, 2/18/10)

2010 Feb 19, Two Muslim women
were stopped from boarding a flight at Manchester airport from
Britain to Pakistan for refusing to go through new body scanners,
citing religious and medical reasons.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Feb 19, Lionel Jeffries
(b.1926), British actor and film director, died. He played Grandpa
Potts in the ďChitty Chitty Bang Bang" (1968). He wrote and directed
the 1970 film ďThe Railway Children" adopted from the Edwardian
childrenís book by E. Nesbit.
(SSFC, 2/21/10, p.C11)

2010 Feb 21, The British public
was introduced to what one political journalist has painted as the
dark face as the country's prime minister: A man so whose rages were
so damaging that the country's top bureaucrat had to intervene to
comfort his distressed staff. The description, carried in book "The
End of the Party," by The Observer journalist Andrew Rawnsley, was
vigorously contested by Brown and his lieutenants.
(AP, 2/21/10)

2010 Feb 22, Latin American and
Caribbean nations backed Argentina's claim of sovereignty to the
Falkland Islands in a growing dispute with Britain over plans to
drill for oil off the islands in the Atlantic. British exploration
company Desire Petroleum PLC said it started drilling for oil about
62 miles north of the disputed islands.
(AP, 2/23/10)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A2)

2010 Feb 25, Prosecutors in
England and Wales received fresh guidelines on assisted suicide that
reduce the likelihood of people facing criminal charges for helping
ailing loved ones to die.
(AFP, 2/25/10)

2010 Feb 26, London-listed
Petra Diamonds sold a 507-carat diamond for $35.3 million, breaking
a record as the highest price ever paid for a rough diamond.
(Reuters, 2/26/10)

2010 Feb 25, Rajib Karim, a
British Airways computer specialist, was arrested at his BA desk in
Newcastle. On Feb 28, 2011, he was convicted after a trial at
Woolwich crown Court in London of plotting with US-born extremist
cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to blow up an airplane. He pleaded guilty to
helping produce a terrorist group's video, fundraising and
volunteering for terror abroad, but insisted he never planned an
attack in Britain. On March 18, 2011, Karim was sentenced to 30
years in prison.
(www.globaljihad.net/view_news.asp?id=1400)(AP,
2/28/11)(AP, 3/18/11)

2010 Mar 1, Daniel Houghton
(25), a former MI6 spy, was arrested after British intelligence
posed as the potential buyer of top secret files on intelligence
gathering techniques. Prosecutor Piers Arnold later said Houghton,
who is a dual Dutch and British national, is accused of copying top
secret files from the domestic agency MI5 to CD and DVDs while
working for the MI6 overseas intelligence service between September
2007 and May 2009. On Sep 3, 2010, Houghton was sentenced to one
year in prison. He was expected to walk free as he has already spent
184 days in custody.
(AP, 3/3/10)(AFP, 9/3/10)
2010 Mar 1, British insurer
Prudential PLC said it will buy the Asian unit of bailed out
American International Group Inc. in a deal worth $35.5 billion that
will allow AIG to pay back some of the money it owes US taxpayers.
(AP, 3/1/10)

2010 Mar 2, In London, England,
Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, a former Pakistani lawmaker and the leader
of a global Muslim movement, issued a fatwa, or religious edict,
that he calls an absolute condemnation of terrorism. The 600-page
fatwa bans suicide bombing "without any excuses, any pretexts, or
exceptions." The religious scholar is the founder of
Minhaj-ul-Quran, a worldwide movement that promotes a nonpolitical,
tolerant Islam.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 2, The BBC volunteered
to become smaller.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.74)

2010 Mar 3, A British judge
ordered former Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic held in custody
despite a request to release him while he challenges a Serbian
demand that he be extradited for alleged war crimes. Ganic was
arrested March 1 at Heathrow Airport after Serbia issued an arrest
warrant accusing him of war crimes in connection with the 1992
deaths of Serbian troops in Bosnia.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, Michael Foot
(b.1913), British left-wing politician, died. He led the Labour
party long before its media-friendly transformation under Tony
Blair. He became Labour leader from 1980 to 1983, advocating
left-wing policies like nuclear disarmament which led one colleague
to call his 1983 election manifesto "the longest suicide note in
history."
(AFP, 3/3/10)

2010 Mar 4, A collection of 300
films capturing the final days of the British Empire in India and
other parts of south Asia was released by the University of
Cambridge. The free archive footage is available at
www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk/films.html. The silent films, taken between
1911 and 1956, celebrate unique moments in history, from life after
the Quetta earthquake of 1935 to the partition of India and Pakistan
in 1947.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Pakistan robbers
kidnapped Sahil Saeed, a five-year-old British boy, in the town of
Jhelum, about 100 km (65 miles) south of Islamabad, demanding a
ransom of 100,000 pounds, prompting his mother to make a tearful
plea for the return of her boy. In the northwest an overnight
gunbattle left 30 insurgents and one soldier dead in the Chamarkand
area of the Mohmand tribal region. Sahil Saeed was released on March
16. Spanish police arrested 3 suspects in the kidnapping in
Tarragona province. They were suspected of having traveled to
another European city to collect ransom money.
(AFP, 3/4/10)(SFC, 3/5/10, p.A2)(AFP,
3/16/10)(AP, 3/17/10)

2010 Mar 5, It was reported
that the advocacy group Big Brother Watch found, through a series of
Freedom of Information requests, that many local governments, called
councils in Britain, are installing microchips in trash cans
distributed to households, but in most cases have not yet activated
them ó in part because officials know the move would be unpopular.
Proponents called it a bid to push recycling. Microchips were first
fitted into some British trash bins eight years ago, and the debate
over whether the state has the right to weigh or otherwise analyze
residents' refuse has surfaced periodically since.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, Dutch anti-Islam
maverick Geert Wilders (46) took his cinematic assault on the Quran
to Britain's House of Lords, sparking heated debate inside the
building and angry protests outside. Wilders screened his 15-minute
film "Fitna" to about 60 people, including a half-dozen peers, in a
wood-paneled committee room in Parliament. The film associates the
Quran with terrorism, homophobia and repression of women.
(AP, 3/5/10)

2010 Mar 7, Sir Kenneth Dover
(89), a distinguished British historian of Greek culture, died. He
gained wider fame by admitting his wish to kill a fellow historian
Trevor Aston (d.1985). His books included commentaries on
Thucydides, Theocritus and Aristophanes; "Ancient Greek Literature"
(1980), "Greek and the Greeks" (1987), "The Greeks and Their Legacy"
(1989), "Greek Popular Morality in the Times of Plato and Aristotle"
(1994), "The Evolution of Greek Prose Style" (1997) and a popular
history, "The Greeks" (1981) written in conjunction with a
television series for the British Broadcasting Corp.
(AP, 3/9/10)

2010 Mar 10, In London
self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky won his libel case
against RTR, a Kremlin-owned broadcaster, that aired allegations he
masterminded the 2006 murder in London of former KGB renegade agent
Alexander Litvinenko. RTR, which did not take part in the hearings,
called the judgment illegal.
(AP, 3/10/10)

2010 Mar 11, British bank HSBC
said information on 24,000 customers with Swiss accounts has
been stolen, potentially exposing large numbers of international
clients to prosecution by tax authorities in their home countries.
(AP, 3/11/10)

2010 Mar 15, In Britain Louis
Wainwright (18) and Nicholas Smith (19), both from Scunthorpe, were
found dead at different addresses following a night out. They had
both taken the drug mephedrone, sold online as plant food and also
goes by the names meow meow, mcat and bubble. The deaths come a week
after a secondary school in Leicestershire reported that 180 pupils
had missed school after taking the drug, which can be bought for
less than £10 a gram.
(AFP, 3/17/10)

2010 Mar 18, Michael Daly (49),
a former detective with Scotland Yard's drug squad, was sentenced to
22 years in prison for his role in a plot to smuggle hundreds of
millions of dollars worth of cocaine into Ireland. Daly's plan was
foiled when his boat ran out of fuel in rough seas and was
shipwrecked off the Irish coast on July 2, 2007. Daly his
co-conspirator Alan Wells, a former firefighter (57), have both
admitted conspiring to supply to the drug. Wells was sentenced to 15
years.
(AP, 3/18/10)

2010 Mar 20, British Airways
canceled more than 1,000 flights after its cabin crew launched a
three-day strike, wreaking havoc on the plans of tens of thousands
of passengers just before the busy spring holiday season. .
(AP, 3/20/10)

2010 Mar 21, British Airways
cabin crews walked off the job for a second day, upsetting travel
plans for scores of customers, but the airline said its contingency
plans were working well and more planes were taking off than
expected.
(AP, 3/21/10)

2010 Mar 22, British Airways
cabin crew held a 3rd day of strike action, prolonging travel misery
for thousands. A business group warned the action threatens
Britain's global reputation.
(AP, 3/22/10)

2010 Mar 23, Britain expelled
an Israeli diplomat to rebuke Israel for its alleged use of forged
British passports in the assassination of a Hamas operative in a
suspected Mossad hit.
(AP, 3/23/10)

2010 Mar 25, In London a
teenager (15) was stabbed in front of commuters during the evening
rush hour at Victoria station. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate
the boy. 20 detainees (14 to 17) and were being questioned in
connection with the incident.
(AFP, 3/26/10)

2010 Mar 27, British Airways
cabin crew launched a four-day strike, the second wave of action in
a week as part of a bitter, long-running dispute over pay and
conditions.
(AFP, 3/27/10)

2010 Mar 28, British Airways
cabin crew entered the second day of a four-day strike, bringing
further travel disruption with no end in sight for a dispute that
has become increasingly political.
(AFP, 3/28/10)

2010 Mar 30, Britain's media
watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission, upheld a complaint
against a blog written by a journalist in what was its first-ever
move to censure a newspaper or magazine over comments by a blogger.
Former BBC journalist and commentator Rod Liddle was censured over a
blog in which he said that young Afro-Caribbean men carried out the
"overwhelming majority" of violent crime in London. The blog which
was published in December on the website of right-wing weekly
magazine The Spectator.
(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Amnesty
International said Europe had its first year without executions in
2009. But the London-based organization said the spell was recently
broken by the execution of two men in Belarus.
(AP, 3/30/10)

2010 Mar, British Grenadier
Guardsman Daniel Crook stabbed Ghulam Nabi (10) while on a patrol in
the Nad-e Ali district of southern Helmand province. In 2011 Crook
was jailed for 18 months for bayoneting the boy. The boy's father
said that he had received $800 (600 euros) in compensation but no
apology.
(AFP, 12/3/11)

2010 Apr 1, Britain said it
will create the world's largest marine reserve by banning fishing
around the Chagos Islands, a U.K.-owned archipelago in the Indian
Ocean. The cluster of 55 islands is spread across about a quarter of
a million square miles of ocean.
(AP, 4/1/10)

2010 Apr 6, PM Gordon Brown
announced that Britain will hold a national election on May 6. The
bitterly contested race will be dominated by a recession-wracked
economy and a sense that 13 years of Labour rule may be coming to an
end.
(AP, 4/6/10)

2010 Apr 8, The inaugural 3-day
conference of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) opened
at Kingís College, Cambridge, England. The institute was sponsored
by renowned investor George Soros.
(Econ, 4/17/10, p.86)

2010 Apr 15, British TV
broadcast the countryís first live debate between leaders of its 3
main political parties.
(Econ, 4/17/10, p.60)
2010 Apr 15, British airport
operator BAA Ltd. said all flights at London's Heathrow Airport have
been suspended for the rest of the day, causing travel chaos as ash
clouds from Iceland's spewing volcano halted air traffic across
Europe.
(AP, 4/15/10)

2010 Apr 16, A German court
convicted ultraconservative British Bishop Richard Williamson of
incitement for denying the Holocaust in a television interview. The
court ordered the Roman Catholic bishop to pay a fine of
euro10,000 ($13,544).
(AP, 4/16/10)

2010 Apr 19, The chief of
British Airways said test flights have proven that the blanket
restrictions EU governments have imposed on flights because of
volcanic ash are unnecessary. The airline industry said it has lost
at least $1 billion due to five days of closed airports. A senior
Western diplomat says several NATO F-16 fighters suffered engine
damage after flying through the volcanic ash cloud covering large
parts of Europe.
(AP, 4/19/10)

2010 Apr 20, Airplanes
gradually took to the skies after five days of being grounded by a
volcanic ash cloud that has devastated European travel. Only limited
flights were allowed to resume at some European airports and UK
authorities said London airports would remained closed for at least
another day due to new danger from the invisible ash cloud.
(AP, 4/20/10)

2010 Apr 25, Kifah Hassan,
chief executive of Iraqi Airways, had his passport seized and the
plane he arrived on was impounded at Gatwick Airport in a
long-running legal dispute with Kuwait Airways. The dispute dated
back to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, when,
according to the oil-rich emirate, 10 of its planes and aircraft
parts were plundered after its airport was seized.
(AFP, 4/30/10)

2010 Apr 27, British
researchers reported that a single sigmoidoscopy between ages 55 and
64 can reduce deaths by at least 43%.
(SFC, 4/28/10, p.A8)

2010 Apr, British treasure
hunter Dave Crisp, using a metal detector, located some 52,500 Roman
coins in a field in southwestern England.
(AP, 7/8/10)

2010 May 3, Energy giant BP
vowed to pay "all necessary and appropriate clean-up costs" from the
US oil pollution disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil has been
spewing into the Gulf of Mexico since a deepwater oil rig operated
by BP exploded and sank on April 20 killing 11 men.
(AP, 5/3/10)

2010 May 4, British Petroleum
said efforts to contain a giant oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico are
costing nearly four million pounds a day. Winds pushed a giant slick
towards fragile wetlands on the US coast as efforts intensified to
bottle up a ruptured oil well causing the growing environmental
disaster.
(AFP, 5/4/10)

2010 May 5, Britain and Ireland
grounded flights again after a fresh cloud of ash swept in from the
Icelandic volcano which sparked unprecedented air travel chaos in
Europe last month.
(AFP, 5/5/10)

2010 May 6, Britain held
national elections expected to deny all three major parties an
outright majority, meaning the first so-called hung Parliament since
1974 is likely. David Cameron claimed the mantle of power after the
Conservatives won the most seats in the election, though not enough
to form a majority. Labour came in second, which for the first time
since the 1970s produced no outright winner. Labour could still
govern with the help of the Liberal Democrats.
(AP, 5/6/10)(AP, 5/7/10)

2010 May 8, It was reported
that Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed has sold luxury London
department store Harrods to Qatar Holding, the Gulf royal family's
investment arm.
(AFP, 5/8/10)

2010 May 11, Britainís PM
Gordon Brown resigned ending 5 days of uncertainty after last week's
general election left the country with no clear winner. Queen
Elizabeth II named David Cameron (43) as the new prime minister.
(AP, 5/12/10)(AFP, 5/12/10)

2010 May 12, Britain's first
coalition government since 1945 unveiled its ministerial team on and
said it would speed up efforts to cut the country's budget deficit
as it emerges from a deep recession. A deal was struck between
Cameronís Conservative party and the third-placed Liberal Democrats
with Nick Clegg (43) to serve as deputy premier. The Conservatives
became parliament's largest party after last week's election, but
fell 20 seats short of an outright majority. With the LibDems, they
will have a majority of 76 seats.
(Reuters, 5/12/10)

2010 May 14, British lawmaker
Stephen Timms (54), a member of Parliament for the constituency of
East Ham and the former financial secretary to the Treasury, was
stabbed by Roshonara Choudhry (21) during an advice session with his
constituents. His injuries were not life-threatening and the women
was arrested. Choudhry was convicted on Nov 2 of trying to murder
Timms in retaliation for his support for the Iraq conflict. The next
day she was sentenced to at least 15 years in prison.
(AP, 5/15/10)(AP, 11/2/10)(AP, 11/3/10)

2010 May 15, British PM David
Cameron and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed to strengthen ties
between London and Kabul in the first meeting between the new
British PM and a foreign leader.
(AFP, 5/15/10)

2010 May 18, Britainís new
chancellor George Osborne called for a freeze to the EU's 2011
budget, saying it was "unacceptable" for Brussels to demand a huge
increase.
(AFP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 18, Britain rebuffed a
new appeal by Argentina to resume talks with London over the
long-disputed Falklands Islands in the south Atlantic.
(AFP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 18, Martin Smith (45)
was flown back from Spain to Britain, the same day as the bodies of
his children were found dead in the coastal resort of Lloret de Mar,
Spain. His wife, Lianne Smith (43), was arrested on suspicion of the
murder of his two children Rebecca (5) and Daniel (11 months).
Lianne Smith was charged with murder on May 21.
(AFP, 5/19/10)(AP, 5/21/10)

2010 May 20, Supermarket chain
Asda said that it is to sell cancer drugs at cost-price and called
on its peers who make massive profits on the treatments to follow
suit. The group, owned by US supermarket giant Wal-Mart, said its
initiative follows the success of a similar scheme by Asda for
in-vitro fertility (IVF) treatments.
(AFP, 5/20/10)
2010 May 20, Britain's
coalition government outlined a joint legislative program, promising
support for the Afghanistan war, a new drive toward Middle East
peace and a "close and frank" relationship with the United States.
(AP, 5/20/10)

2010 May 23, Britain's Duchess
of York Sarah Ferguson said she was "very sorry" for her lapse of
judgment after she was recorded apparently offering to sell access
to her ex-husband Prince Andrew in return for 500,000 pounds
($724,000).
(AP, 5/23/10)

2010 May 24, Britain's new
coalition government outlined more than 6 billion pounds ($8.7
billion) in spending cuts, including scaling back computer
purchases, official cars for ministers and first-class air travel,
but warned that these are only first steps toward slashing the
nation's record budget deficit.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 May 24, British Airways
cabin crew started a five-day strike, throwing travel plans for
thousands of passengers into disarray after last-ditch efforts to
avert the action collapsed.
(AP, 5/24/10)

2010 May 26, Vampire saga
"Twilight" took home three prizes from the ITV1 awards at London's
Royal Festival Hall. The "Twilight Saga: New Moon", the second in
the series, was named best fantasy film, while its British star
Robert Pattinson took the award for best performance.
(AFP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 27, Danish container
shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S said it has sold its
British supermarket chain Netto to Wal-Mart subsidiary Asda Stores
Ltd. for 778 million pounds ($1.1 billion).
(AP, 5/27/10)

2010 May 28, Stephen Griffiths
(40), a British criminology student, described himself as "the
crossbow cannibal" when he appeared in court to face charges that he
murdered three prostitutes in northern England.
(AP, 5/28/10)

2010 May 30, British Airways
cabin crew started a fresh five-day strike with little sign of a
breakthrough in the long-running dispute between their union and the
airline.
(AFP, 5/30/10)

2010 Jun 1, Christie Ibori-Ibie
was found guilty by London's Southwark Crown Court on charges of
aiding her brother James Ibori, the former governor of Delta state,
who himself stands accused of siphoning nearly 300 million dollars
of public funds in Nigeria.
(AFP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 1, A court in Morocco
sentenced Ibrahim Lee Murray (32), a cage fighter with British and
Moroccan nationality, to 10 years in jail for Britain's biggest cash
robbery carried out on Feb 22, 2006.
(AFP, 6/2/10)

2010 Jun 2, BP Plc forged ahead
with its latest effort to curb the flow of oil spewing into the Gulf
of Mexico as the British energy giant's shares fell anew as the US
government launched criminal and civil probes into the disaster.
(Reuters, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 2, In northwestern
England Derrick Bird (52), a taxi driver described as quiet but
friendly, went on a shooting spree across a picturesque rural area,
killing 12 people, including his twin brother, and wounding 11
before apparently turning the gun on himself.
(AP, 6/2/10)(AP, 6/3/10)(AP, 6/5/10)

2010 Jun 3, Britain's financial
regulator said it had slapped a record £33.32 million fine on a unit
of US banking giant JP Morgan for having failed to properly protect
client money over a period of seven years.
(AFP, 6/3/10)
2010 Jun 3, The European
Commission announced it has sent a final warning to Britain over its
failure to comply with EU air quality rules, due to the levels of
dangerous airborne particles in London and Gibraltar.
(AFP, 6/3/10)
2010 Jun 3, Roz Savage (42), a
British environmentalist, became the first woman to row solo across
the Pacific Ocean as she landed in Madang, Papua New guinea. She
covered nearly 7,000 miles in three separate legs beginning May 25,
2008, when she departed from San Francisco.
(SFC, 6/4/10, p.C3)(AP, 6/5/10)

2010 Jun 8, Britainís
state-owned bank Northern Rock said that it plans to cut up to 650
jobs by the end of 2010 as part of an ongoing restructuring process
after a government bailout.
(AP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 8, Britainís Anglican
Communion suspended US Episcopalians from serving on ecumenical
bodies because of the election of lesbian Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool
as an assistant bishop in Los Angeles on June 5.
(SFC, 6/9/10, p.A2)

2010 Jun 10, Britainís PM David
Cameron made his first official visit to Afghanistan, ruling out the
prospect of sending extra forces and calling for quicker progress to
bring troops home.
(AFP, 6/10/10)
2010 Jun 10, BP shares fell in
London as US politicians pressed the British oil company to halt its
dividend payments and fork out greater compensation for American
workers and companies devastated by the massive Gulf of Mexico oil
spill.
(AP, 6/10/10)

2010 Jun 11, A Credit Suisse
analyst, briefed by BPís Chief of Staff, said in a research note
that BP expects the total bill for the clean up of the Gulf of
Mexico oil spill to be $3-6 billion.
(Reuters, 6/11/10)
2010 Jun 11, Norman Macrae,
deputy editor of The Economist (1965-1988), died.
(Econ, 6/19/10, p.88)

2010 Jun 12, Food critic Egon
Ronay (b.1915), whose eponymous restaurant guides helped Britain
embrace fine dining after years of postwar austerity, died. Ronay
left communist Hungary for Britain in 1946 and began writing about
food for The Daily Telegraph newspaper. In 1957 he produced the
first Egon Ronay Guide to British restaurants, modeled on France's
Michelin guides.
(AP, 6/12/10)

2010 Jun 13, The London School
of Economics issued new research report saying Pakistan's main spy
agency continues to arm and train the Taliban and is even
represented on the group's leadership council despite US pressure to
sever ties and billions in aid to combat the militants.
(AP, 6/13/10)
2010 Jun 13, The London-based
Mo Ibrahim Foundation said that for the second year in a row its $5
million annual prize for good governance in Africa will not be
awarded.
(AP, 6/13/10)

2010 Jun 14, Britainís new
Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) put the deficit for the
financial year to March 2011 at £155 billion ($299 billion), or
10.5% of GDP.
(Econ, 6/19/10, p.57)

2010 Jun 15, An epic 12-year
investigation into Northern Ireland's biggest mass killing by
British soldiers reached a bittersweet climax as relatives of the 13
Catholic demonstrators killed on "Bloody Sunday" began reading a
5,000-page report into why the 1972 slaughter happened. The probe
ruled that British soldiers were entirely to blame for the killings.
(AP, 6/15/10)(SFC, 6/16/10, p.A2)

2010 Jun 21, The US White
House slapped BP with a new 51-million-dollar bill, the third sent
to the British energy giant and its partners for government expenses
incurred in efforts to halt the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP
revealed it has so far spent two billion dollars on the Gulf of
Mexico oil spill, after an internal BP document suggested the gusher
might be spewing far faster than initially feared.
(AFP, 6/21/10)

2010 Jun 22, Britain announced
the toughest cuts to public spending in decades and new tax rises in
an emergency budget aimed at sharply reducing the country's record
debts.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 22, Britain, France
and Germany committed to levying a fee on banks to shield taxpayers
from the cost of resolving financial crises and said they would ask
other countries to join them.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 22, In Britain an 1878
self-portrait by Edouard Manet sold for 22.4 million pounds at
Sotheby's auction house in London, setting a new record for a work
by the master impressionist.
(AFP, 6/22/10)

2010 Jun 23, British Foreign
Secretary William Hague pledged to deepen strategic relations with
Pakistan as he paid his first visit to Islamabad since the new
government in London took power.
(AFP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 23, Embattled BP CEO
Tony Hayward handed over the handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil
spill to Bob Dudley (54), an American executive brought up in
Mississippi, one of the states affected by the disaster.
(AP, 6/23/10)

2010 Jun 26, Britainís
newspaper, The Times, reported that the country's new government
intends to impose a temporary limit on the number of foreign workers
from outside the European Union it allows into the country.
(AP, 6/26/10)

2010 Jun 28, The British Home
Office unveiled plans to limit the numbers coming to live and work
in the country for the first time, cutting visas for skilled non-EU
migrants by five percent.
(AP, 6/28/10)

2010 Jun 30, The British the
Supreme Court ruled that British troops are not protected by human
rights laws on the battlefield, after the government argued that
such protection could hamper military decision-making.
(AFP, 6/30/10)

2010 Jul 3, The British
government said it has ordered many ministries to plan for spending
cuts of up to 40%, far greater than announced in an emergency
budget. As Britain bid to slash a record budget deficit, departments
had been warned to expect spending cuts of about 25%, but many
ministries have now been asked to identify where cuts of 40% could
be made.
(AFP, 7/3/10)
2010 Jul 3, In Northumbria,
England, Raoul Moat (37), a nightclub bouncer and bodybuilder,
seriously injured a policeman and his ex-girlfriend and killed her
new partner in and around Newcastle, before apparently fleeing to
the nearby Northumbria National Park. One of Britain's biggest ever
manhunts ended dramatically on July 10 when Raoul Moat shot himself
dead after a six-hour stand-off with armed police.
(AP, 7/9/10)(AP, 7/10/10)

2010 Jul 4, In Northumbria,
England, Raoul Moat (37), a nightclub bouncer and bodybuilder, shot
policeman David Rathband as he sat in his patrol car in Newcastle.
Rathband lost his sight and was fitted with prosthetic eyes. On Feb
31, 2012, Rathband (44) was found dead at his home.
(AP, 7/9/10)(AP, 7/10/10)(AFP, 3/1/12)
2010 Jul 4, In London Rafael
Nadal reclaimed his Wimbledon title. The match lasted just two
hours and 13 minutes before being concluded 6-3 7-5 6-4.
(AP, 7/4/10)

2010 Jul 6, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth (84) addressed the UN for the first time since1957. The
queen's 10-minute speech to a special session of the General
Assembly was finished before Netherlands and Uruguay returned to
their soccer match in Cape Town. Netherlands progressed to the
finals after beating Uruguay 3-2.
(Reuters, 7/6/10)
2010 Jul 6, Britain said it
will hold a judge-led inquiry into allegations that its spies were
complicit in the torture of terror suspects held by the US and other
allies. The government also announced it will pay compensation to
detainees found to have been mistreated in the global pursuit of
terrorists after the Sept. 11 attacks.
(AP, 7/6/10)
2010 Jul 6, Britainís Guardian
newspaper, citing unnamed political sources, said British troops
will turn over responsibility for one of the deadliest districts in
southern Afghanistan to Americans in a reconfiguration of NATO-led
forces in the area, and that Britain would soon withdraw its 1,000
soldiers from the Sangin district of Helmand province, where they
would be replaced by US troops who now outnumber them in Helmand.
Britainís Defense Secretary Liam Fox confirmed the announcement the
next day.
(Reuters, 7/6/10)(AFP, 7/7/10)

2010 Jul 7, Police in northeast
England detained Abid Naseer (24), the alleged ringleader of an
al-Qaida bomb plot, at the request of the US government. He
was among 12 people arrested last year in raids across northern
England. All were released without charge.
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, In Britain
scientists at a top research unit embroiled in a row over climate
research were cleared of dishonesty, but their lack of openness was
criticized. The Independent Climate Change Email Review found
nothing in the emails to undermine reports from the United Nations'
climate change panel.
(AFP, 7/7/10)

2010 Jul 8, A British court in
London convicted Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan and Waheed Zaman
of conspiracy to murder in a case linked to a 2006 plot to blow up
transatlantic jet planes.
(AFP, 7/8/10)

2010 Jul 12, Britain sentenced
conspirators Ibrahim Savant (29), Arafat Waheed Khan (29), and
Waheed Zaman (26) to at least 20 years each in prison, bringing a
long-running legal saga to an end. They were part of a 2006 plot to
bomb trans-Atlantic airliners and kill thousands of people. A total
of 9 conspirators have been convicted in the plot.
(AP, 7/12/10)(SFC, 7/13/10, p.A3)
2010 Jul 12, The Church of
England national assembly decided that women should be allowed to
become bishops, making only minor concessions to theological
conservatives who have threatened to break away over the issue.
(AP, 7/12/10)

2010 Jul 14, British Airways
and Iberia won the EU's regulatory approval to merge and to team up
with American Airlines to share more of their lucrative
trans-Atlantic routes.
(AP, 7/14/10)

2010 Jul 18, In England plane
manufacturers, airlines, government ministers and military top brass
gathered for the Farnborough International Airshow amid hopes that
the two-year downturn in the aviation and defense industry is
nearing a bottom.
(AP, 7/18/10)

2010 Jul 19, In England Boeing
Co. and Airbus announced new orders worth almost $13 billion at the
start of the Farnborough International Airshow, raising hopes that
the aviation industry is on the way back up after a dire two-year
slump.
(AP, 7/19/10)

2010 Jul 26, Campaign group
Global Witness said it was launching legal action against the
British government for allegedly failing to refer companies trading
Congolese "conflict minerals" for UN sanctions.
(AFP, 7/26/10)
2010 Jul 26, The British
culture department announced plans to abolish the UK Film Council, a
body responsible for funding 900 British films since it was set up
in 2000.
(AFP, 7/27/10)

2010 Jul 27, British PM David
Cameron visited Turkey, saying the world needs Turkey's help in
pushing Iran to address concerns about its nuclear program and
harshly criticizing Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla that
killed nine Turkish activists.
(AP, 7/27/10)

2010 Jul 28, British PM David
Cameron kicked off a much-hyped visit to India, pitching for
investment and open trade to boost Britain's fragile post-recession
recovery.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 28, British
authorities found a suspect package "at a premises on Albert
Embankment," the location of Britain's foreign intelligence agency.
Another device was intercepted at a postal sorting office. Two men,
aged 52 and 21, were later arrested in Wales on explosives charges
and were being held on Aug 1 at a London police station.
(AP, 8/1/10)

2010 Jul, London, England,
launched a bicycle-hire scheme with 5,000 bikes scattered around
hundreds of docking stations in the center of the city.
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.57)
2010 Jul, In Derby, England, a
group of Muslim men handed out leaflets calling for homosexuals to
be "punished" and given the death sentence outside and near the
Jamia Mosque in Rosehill Street. They also put the leaflets through
people's letterboxes in the neighborhood. In 2012 Ihjaz Ali (42),
Mehboob Hussain (45), Umar Javed (38), Razwan Javed (27), and Kabir
Ahmed (28), are accused of stirring up hatred on the grounds of
sexual orientation, denied the charges.
(AFP, 1/10/12)

2010 Aug 1, British Chancellor
of the Exchequer George Osborne told the country's banks they must
use their first-half profits to start lending to businesses again.
(AFP, 8/1/10)

2010 Aug 3, British MPs of
Pakistani origin hit out at President Asif Ali Zardari, saying he
should be back home sorting out the flooding disaster rather than
launching his son's career.
(AFP, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 3, British oil giant
BP said it will sell its Colombian business for a total of 1.9
billion dollars (1.4 billion euros) to national oil company
Ecopetrol and Talisman of Canada.
(AFP, 8/3/10)

2010 Aug 6, Britain and
Pakistan agreed to do more together to fight Islamist militancy,
brushing aside a diplomatic spat that followed British criticism of
Pakistani efforts to counter extremism. Visiting Pakistan's Pres.
President Asif Ali Zardari held official talks with PM David
Cameron, roughly a week after the British leader ignited a
diplomatic row by accusing Pakistan of exporting terrorism during a
trip to the country's nuclear rival, India.
(Reuters, 8/6/10)(AP, 8/6/10)

2010 Aug 11, Researchers
reported that plastic surgery patients have carried a new class of
superbugs resistant to almost all antibiotics from South Asia to
Britain and they could spread worldwide. This so-called NDM-1 gene
was first identified last year by Cardiff University's Timothy Walsh
in two types of bacteria, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia
coli, in a Swedish patient admitted to hospital in India.
(AFP, 8/11/10)

2010 Aug 12, Leicester City,
the English Championship soccer club, announced that a consortium
led by Thai businessman Aiyawatt Raksriaksorn has bought the
organization.
(AFP, 8/12/10)

2010 Aug 17, British retiree
Christopher Tappin (63) insisted he is the innocent victim of
entrapment by US customs agents. American authorities accuse him of
plotting to sell missile components to Iran in a deal exposed in an
undercover sting. Tappin told reporters at a news conference in
London he had been duped by the customs agents, had no contacts with
Iran and had stood to make only $500 from his role in the deal.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 17, A new British
report said police detected more than 6,800 cannabis farms and
factories in the UK in the last 12 months, more than double the
number found in 2007-2008.
(AFP, 8/17/10)

2010 Aug 20, BHP Billiton Group
announced commencement of all cash-offer to acquire Potash Corp. for
$130 per share. On Nov 3 Canada blocked the Anglo-Australian mining
giantís $39 billion bid. The deal would have cost Saskatchewan an
estimated C$200m a year in tax revenues.
(Reuters, 8/20/10)(Reuters, 11/3/10)(Econ,
11/6/10, p.50)

2010 Aug 20, Charles Haddon,
the lead singer of the British electro-pop group Ou Est Le Swimming
Pool, committed suicide after performing at a rock festival in
Belgium.
(AFP, 8/21/10)

2010 Aug 23, Gareth Williams
(31), an employee of code-breaking agency GCHQ, was found dead at a
flat near the agency's headquarters in the upmarket Pimlico area of
London. His naked and decomposing body was found inside a padlocked
sports bag. Williams was working on attachment for Britain's Secret
Intelligence Service MI6 when he died. In 2012 a coroner concluded
at an inquest that another person was probably involved in
Williams's death.
(Reuters, 8/25/10)(AP, 2/15/11)(AP, 3/30/12)(AFP,
11/13/13)

2010 Aug 26, Asil Nadir (69), a
Turkish Cypriot businessman, returned to London to face charges of
fraud. He had fled Britain almost two decades ago following the
spectacular collapse of his business empire. Nadir fled the country
in May of 1993, four months before he was scheduled to face trial.
(AP, 8/26/10)

2010 Aug 27, British
researchers said they have decoded the genetic sequence of wheat.
(SFC, 8/28/10, p.A2)

2010 Aug 28, In Britain 13 men
were arrested in the ethnically-mixed city of Bradford as a
far-right, anti-Islamist group clashed with anti-fascist
demonstrators in the streets.
(AFP, 8/28/10)

2010 Aug 29, In Britain 2 men
and a woman were arrested in connection with allegations that
Pakistani cricket players were involved in a betting scam.
(AFP, 8/31/10)

2010 Aug 31, British aid group
Oxfam said it had suspended operations in a northern Afghan region
after two employees and a local volunteer were killed there on Aug
28.
(Reuters, 8/31/10)(AP, 9/1/10)

2010 Aug, Cairn Energy, a
British petrochemicals company, announced the discovery of
worthwhile oil deposits off the coast of Greenland. Its licensed
acreage was estimated to hold some 4 billion barrels of oil.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.43)

2010 Sep 2, The London Times
published extracts of a new book by the eminent British theoretical
physicist Stephen Hawking in which he argues that God did not
create the universe and the "Big Bang" was an inevitable consequence
of the laws of physics. "The Grand Design" was co-authored with US
physicist Leonard Mlodinow.
(Reuters, 9/3/10)

2010 Sep 3, Britain and France
announced they are talking about sharing the cost of military
aircraft programs, but rejected reports that they plan to merge
their aircraft carrier fleets.
(AFP, 9/3/10)
2010 Sep 3, In southern England
cellist Mike Edwards (62), a founding member of the Electric Light
Orchestra (ELO) band, died after the 600 kg (1,323 lb) bale rolled
down a steep field in Devon, smashed through a hedge and careered on
to the road.
(Reuters, 9/7/10)

2010 Sep 4, British tax
collectors said a new computer system has revealed that almost 6
million people have paid the wrong amount of income tax, and 1.4
million will be told to repay an average of 1,500 pounds ($2,300)
each.
(AP, 9/4/10)

2010 Sep 5, Afghanistan's
Taliban said they would attempt to disrupt the Sep 18 elections and
warned Afghans to boycott the vote, the first explicit threat
against the poll by the hardline Islamists. A British soldier was
killed by an exploding grenade. The death takes to 333 the British
death toll in Afghanistan since 2001. Afghan journalist Sayed Hamid
Noori was found outside his Kabul home covered in stab wounds. Noori
had once been an anchor for state television and a newspaper editor.
More recently, he held a leadership position in Afghanistan's
Association of Independent Journalists and teacher of young
journalists.
(Reuters, 9/5/10)(AFP, 9/5/10)(AP, 9/6/10)

2010 Sep 6, A British judge
sentenced a Church of England minister to four years in jail for his
part in a sham-marriage scam which saw hundreds of African men marry
European women so they could stay in Britain.
(AP, 9/6/10)

2010 Sep 7, Strikes hobbled
public transit in London and across France, forcing tourists and
commuters to alter their plans as they bore the brunt of a wave of
discontent over government cost-cutting measures, a wave expected to
soon prompt walkouts elsewhere on the continent. Some 1.2-2.7
million people in France took to the streets for the one-day strike.
(AP, 9/7/10)(Econ, 9/11/10, p.31)

2010 Sep 8, British mobile
phone giant Vodafone lost a legal appeal against an Indian tax bill
estimated at $2.0 billion relating to the group's 2007 purchase of
local group Hutchison Essar.
(AFP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 8, Michael Lassen
(61), English stained-glass artist, died in a hospital after falling
from a ladder on Sep 3, while working on a widow at the Durham
cathedral.
(Econ, 10/9/10, p.124)

2010 Sep 9, British legislators
authorized a sweeping inquiry into illicit snooping on politicians
and celebrities by tabloids, as one lawmaker called for media tycoon
Rupert Murdoch to testify over allegations one of his newspapers
illegally hacked into cell phones.
(AP, 9/9/10)

2010 Sep 13, British trade
unions voted overwhelmingly to back rare coordinated strikes as they
were urged to "stand up and fight" government austerity cuts at
their congress.
(AFP, 9/13/10)

2010 Sep 14, The British
embassy said Britain has offered to build 11 warships for Brazil, as
Brazil hones a maritime defense contract to protect recently found
vast offshore oil deposits.
(AFP, 9/15/10)

2010 Sep 16, In Britain Imran
Farooq (50), a founding member of Pakistan's Muttahida Qaumi
Movement (MQM), a major political force in Karachi, was found with
head injuries and stab wounds outside his home in north London. On
Dec 9 British police arrested a 34-year-old man on suspicion of
murdering Farooq. On Aug 27, 2014, British police arrested another
man (30) in connection with the 2010 murder.
(AFP, 9/17/10)(AFP, 12/9/10)(AP, 8/27/14)
2010 Sep 16, Pope Benedict XVI,
arrived in Edinburgh beginning a controversial visit to Britain. He
acknowledged that the Catholic Church had failed to act decisively
or quickly enough to deal with priests who rape and molest children.
He said the church's top priority now was to help the victims heal.
(AP, 9/16/10)

2010 Sep 17, Bat Khurts, a key
figure in Mongolia's National Security Council, was detained as he
flew into London's Heathrow airport, for allegedly abducting a
Mongolian murder suspect in 2003. On Feb 18, 2011, a British judge
ruled that Khurts can be extradited to Germany.
(AFP, 2/18/11)

2010 Sep 18, In Britain Pope
Benedict XVI said he was ashamed of the "unspeakable" sexual abuse
of children by priests, issuing an apology to the British faithful
even as thousands of people opposed to his visit marched in central
London in the biggest protest of his five-year papacy.
(AP, 9/18/10)

2010 Sep 19, In Britain Pope
Benedict XVI beatified Cardinal John Henry Newman at an open-air
Mass and marked the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain with a
personal reflection on the evil of the Nazi regime, praising those
who "courageously" resisted it.
(AP, 9/19/10)

2010 Sep 21, Greenpeace said
that its activists have climbed aboard a Chevron-operated ship to
protest drilling operations in the deep waters off Britain's
Shetland Islands.
(AP, 9/21/10)

2010 Sep 23, Britain opened the
world's largest offshore wind farm off its southeast coast, as part
of a government's push to boost renewable energy.
(AP, 9/23/10)

2010 Sep 25, In Britain Ed
Miliband (40) narrowly defeated brother David, the 45-year-old
ex-foreign secretary, in a Labour Party leadership contest, winning
a slender majority of 1.3 percent of votes. On Sep 29 former foreign
secretary David Miliband said he was quitting front-line politics in
the U.K. after losing to his younger brother in a battle for the
leadership of the country's main opposition Labour Party.
(AP, 9/26/10)(AP, 9/29/10)

2010 Sep 26, British
businessman James Heselden (62), who last year bought the company
that makes the two-wheeled Segway personal transporter, died in an
accident on one of the vehicles in the River Wharfe near Boston Spa.
He had made a fortune through his firm Hesco Bastion which developed
a system replacing sand bags to protect troops.
(AP, 9/27/10)

2010 Sep 28, A Scotland Yardís
special crimes unit arrested 19 people suspected of draining
millions of dollars from British banks by hacking into customersí
accounts.
(SFC, 9/30/10, p.A2)

2010 Sep 29, Security sources
and media reports said Western intelligence agencies have uncovered
an Al-Qaeda plot to launch attacks in Britain, France and Germany by
extremists based in Pakistan.
(AFP, 9/29/10)

2010 Sep 30, US federal
prosecutors said over 50 people have been charged in intíl. schemes
that used computer viruses to steal millions of dollars from bank
accounts in the US and England. The cyberattacks included malware
known as the ďZeus Trojan."
(SFC, 10/1/10, p.A8)

2010 Sep, The FBI and its
counterparts in Ukraine, the Netherlands and Britain took down a
cyber-theft ring they first got wind of in May 2009 when a financial
services firm tipped the bureau's Omaha, Neb., office to suspicious
transactions. Since then, the FBI's Operation Trident Breach has
uncovered losses of $14 million and counting.
(AP, 11/22/10)

2010 Oct 1, In Britain most
provisions of the 2010 Equality Act took effect, including a measure
to stop pay secrecy clauses being used to hide unfair differences
between men and women's pay. But 10 percent of the legislation,
which was passed by Parliament in April, will be left out, while the
government reviews certain sections of it.
(AFP, 10/1/10)

2010 Oct 2, Britainís Druids
hailed a semi-governmental Charity Commissionís decision to grant it
charitable status just like mainstream religions such as the Church
of England. The Druid Network, a group of about 350 Druids, will
receive exemptions from taxes on donations.
(AP, 10/2/10)

2010 Oct 3, The US and Britain
warned their citizens of an increased risk of terrorist attacks in
Europe, with Washington saying al Qaeda might target transport
infrastructure.
(Reuters, 10/3/10)

2010 Oct 4, Britainís treasury
chief George Osborne said payments to jobless families will be
capped and child benefits for high earners scrapped in a sweeping
overhaul of the country's welfare system.
(AP, 10/4/10)
2010 Oct 4, Millions of
commuters in London endured a grim journey to work after staff on
the Underground network walked out for the second time in a month,
sparking calls for tougher strike laws.
(AFP, 10/4/10)

2010 Oct 5, Two Russian-born
scientists shared the Nobel Prize in physics for groundbreaking
experiments with ultrathin carbon. In 2004 University of Manchester
professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov used Scotch tape to
isolate graphene, a form of carbon only one atom thick but more than
100 times stronger than steel, and showed it has exceptional
properties, the strongest and thinnest material known to mankind.
(AP, 10/5/10)(Econ, 12/5/15, TQ p.9)

2010 Oct 6, American Airlines,
British Airways and Iberia launched their transatlantic joint
business, unveiling new routes and detailing benefits for customers
that include a shared frequent flyers program.
(AP, 10/6/10)

2010 Oct 6, In Britain Halima
Bashir (30), a doctor who says she was gang-raped in 2004 by
Sudanese soldiers after speaking out about atrocities in Darfur, won
the Anna Politkovskaya award for women human rights defenders. She
wrote about her experiences in her memoir, "Tears of the Desert"
(2008).
(Reuters, 10/6/10)

2010 Oct 7, Researchers at
Londonís Kew Gardens said they have discovered that the Paris
japonica has a genetic code 50 times longer than that of a human
being. To date this was the longest genome discovered.
(SFC, 10/8/10, p.A2)

2010 Oct 8, Organizers said a
ticket-holder in Britain has won a record 129 million euros (181
million dollars) on the Euromillions lottery, although nobody has
yet come forward to claim the prize. The Euromillions lottery,
launched in 2004, is now played by nine countries across western
Europe.
(AFP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 8, In northern
Afghanistan Kunduz provincial governor Mohammad Omar and at least 19
other people were killed by a massive bomb blast inside a packed
mosque during Friday prayers in Takhar province. NATO helicopters
killed six Afghan militiamen in eastern Khost province. An insurgent
attack killed a NATO service member and two others died in separate
roadside bombings in the south. Armed men burst into a mosque and
shot dead religious scholar Molvi Mohammad during Friday prayers in
Kandahar city. Linda Norgrove (36) a British aid worker was killed
during a botched US rescue raid. She had been abducted at gunpoint
on Sep 26. A rescue team was closing in on the house where Norgrove
was being held when a grenade was thrown into the room where she was
kept, killing her. Troops opened fire and killed all the captors. An
investigation over her death confirmed that a grenade thrown by US
forces had killed Norgrove.
(AP, 10/8/10)(AFP, 10/9/10)(AFP, 10/11/10)(AP,
12/2/10)

2010 Oct 11, Queen Elizabeth
named a new British cruise ship the Queen Elizabeth. British
monarchs have launched seven merchant ships bearing royal names
since the Queen Mary in 1934. The newest vessel is the third named
Queen Elizabeth.
(AP, 10/11/10)

2010 Oct 13, Britain's Lloyds
Banking Group said that it will axe another 4,500 jobs, including
1,750 posts outside the UK, as the crisis-hit lender continues its
painful restructuring.
(AFP, 10/13/10)

2010 Oct 14, British actor
Simon MacCorkindale (58), who starred on British television in
"Casualty" and in the United States in "Falcon Crest," died in
London of bowel cancer. His film roles include the murderer Simon
Doyle in "Death on the Nile" in 1977 and as Philip FitzRoyce in
"Jaws 3-D" ("Jaws III").
(AP, 10/16/10)

2010 Oct 18, A new British
government strategy was published saying International terrorism and
cyber attacks pose the biggest threat to national security, ahead of
a major shake-up of the defense budget.
(AFP, 10/18/10)

2010 Oct 19, Britain will lose
thousands of troops, build new aircraft carriers, without new
fighter jets, and delay a multibillion pound upgrade to its nuclear
deterrent under sweeping defense cuts announced following the first
major military review in more than a decade.
(AP, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 19, European Union
finance ministers sealed a deal to regulate the trillion-dollar
hedge fund industry after Britain and France settled a long-running
conflict.
(AFP, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 19, Deutsch Bahnís
high-speed train, ICE-3, became the first German train to pass
through the Channel tunnel on its way to Londonís St Pancras
station.
(Econ, 10/23/10, p.77)

2010 Oct 20, Britainís treasury
chief George Osborne announced 81 billion pounds ($128 billion) in
spending cuts through 2015, which will ax welfare payments, savage
government services and see as many as half a million public sector
jobs lost.
(AP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 20, British Justice
David Bean sentenced Prince Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al Saud
to a life sentence without the possibility of parole for 20 years
for the brutal assault at the Landmark Hotel in London on Feb 15.
(AP, 10/20/10)
2010 Oct 20, Britain's Supreme
Court ruled in favor of German heiress Katrin Radmacher (40),
seeking to protect her considerable fortune from her ex-husband
Nicolas Granatino (39). The decision gave new strength to prenuptial
agreements in England.
(AP, 10/20/10)

2010 Oct 21, In Britain the
Privileges and Conduct Committee of the House of Lords suspended
Pola Uddin, Swraj Paul and Amirali Bhatia after declaring they did
not act in good faith in filing their expense claims. They were
ordered to repay amounts ranging from 27,000 pounds ($45,000) to
just over 125,000 pounds ($197,000).
(AP, 10/21/10)

2010 Oct 22, A British judge
sentenced James Robinson (73), a former Roman Catholic priest, to 21
years in jail after he was convicted of 21 charges of sexual
offenses against boys. Ordained in 1971, he was accused of abusing
boys from 1959 to 1983.
(AP, 10/22/10)
2010 Oct 22, A nuclear-powered
British submarine, the HMS Astute, was grounded in an accident off
the coast of Scotland. Officials said the incident was not serious
and no one was injured.
(AP, 10/22/10)

2010 Oct 29, Britainís PM David
Cameron claimed that the days of "crazy" European Union spending are
finished after a deal to keep Brussels in line with reduced national
budgets.
(AFP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 29, Authorities on 3
continents thwarted attacks when they seized explosives on cargo
planes in the United Arab Emirates and England. The plot sent
tremors throughout the US, where after a frenzied day searching
planes and parcel trucks for other explosives, officials temporarily
banned all new cargo from Yemen. The next day police in Dubai said
that the bomb discovered there contained the powerful explosive PETN
and bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida. One of the two powerful bombs
mailed from Yemen to Chicago-area synagogues traveled on two
passenger planes within the Middle East. A tip of the plot came from
Jabir al-Fayfi, a Saudi who was held for years at the US military
prison at Guantanamo Bay. On Nov 5 al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing
claimed responsibility for the explosive parcels.
(AP, 10/30/10)(AP, 10/31/10)(AP,
11/2/10)(Reuters, 11/5/10)

2010 Nov 1, Britain's BG Group
announced it will spend 15 billion US dollars on a liquefied natural
gas (LNG) project in Australia, an investment Canberra hailed as a
boost for the national economy.
(AFP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 1, British scientists
said alcohol is a more dangerous drug than both crack and heroin
when the combined harms to the user and to others are assessed.
(Reuters, 11/1/10)

2010 Nov 2, BP lifted its
estimate of the likely cost of its Gulf of Mexico oil spill to $40
billion, denting profits, but its underlying performance beat all
expectations on higher refining margins and a lower tax rate.
(Reuters, 11/2/10)
2010 Nov 2, Britain and France
vowed to work hand-in-glove as their leaders ushered in an
unprecedented era of defense cooperation by agreeing to create a
joint force and share nuclear test facilities.
(AP, 11/2/10)
2010 Nov 2, Reprieve, a
London-based legal advocacy group opposed to the death penalty,
filed suit to try to prevent a British company from exporting a drug
that could be used in the execution of an American inmate.
(AP, 11/2/10)

2010 Nov 3, Israel suspended a
special strategic dialogue with London as long as Israeli officials
visiting Britain face possible arrest for suspected war crimes
against Palestinians. The two countries announced the dialogue two
years ago to boost relations. But Israel put them on hold at the
beginning of the year after former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni
canceled a trip to London for fear of arrest.
(AP, 11/3/10)

2010 Nov 4, British Foreign
Secretary William Hague pledged that Britain would act fast to amend
a law that puts visiting Israeli officials at risk of arrest for
alleged war crimes.
(AFP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 4, The Bank of England
voted to keep its key interest rate at a record low 0.50 percent and
opted against following in the footsteps of the US Federal Reserve
with fresh stimulus measures.
(AFP, 11/4/10)

2010 Nov 5, Britain began a
3-day hearing on Iraqi civilian claims of abuse. Lawyers for 222
Iraqi civilians were suing the British government, claiming their
clients were subjected to a regime of systematic abuse by British
soldiers and interrogators, and that their only realistic remedy is
a far-reaching public investigation into how the U.K. treated its
captives in Iraq.
(AP, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 5, The British
government said it has sold the right to run the rail line from
London to the Channel Tunnel to a Canadian consortium for 2.1
billion pounds.
(AFP, 11/5/10)

2010 Nov 8, Britainís PM David
Cameron departed for a 2-day trip to China. He brought along 4
cabinet ministers and 50 businessmen. Cameron hoped to double trade
with China over the next five years.
(Econ, 11/13/10, p.65)
2010 Nov 8, Five Church of
England bishops announced they are converting to Catholicism
following an invitation to disaffected Anglicans from Pope Benedict
XVI, the highest-profile defectors among conservatives opposed to
gay bishops and female clergy.
(AP, 11/8/10)

2010 Nov 9, Londoners Tom
Freeman (26) and Katherine Doyle (26), after having their
application to form a civil partnership rejected by officials at
their local town hall in Islington, north London, said they will go
to court to win the right. They were being backed by gay rights
activists, who hope a ruling that allows straight couples the right
to a civil partnership would mean, in turn, that gay couples have
the right to wed.
(AP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 9, Turkeyís Pres.
Abdullah Gul received this yearís Chatham House prize from Britainís
queen.
(Econ, 11/13/10, p.60)

2010 Nov 10, Some 52,000 people
marched noisily through London to oppose plans to triple university
tuition fees, in the largest street protest yet against the
government's sweeping austerity measures.
(AP, 11/10/10)(SSFC, 11/14/10, p.A4)

2010 Nov 11, The British
government unveiled plans to stop handouts for up to three years to
jobless who refuse work, in the biggest shake-up in the history of
the welfare state, a day after violent protests rocked London.
(AFP, 11/11/10)
2010 Nov 11, In Britain an
18th-century Chinese porcelain vase, sold by a family clearing out a
deceased relative's house in a suburb of London, went to a Chinese
buyer for 51.6 million pounds ($83 million), more than 40 times the
pre-sale estimate and a record for a Chinese work of art. The price
included 20% in fees.
(AP, 11/12/10)

2010 Nov 13, In South Africa
Anni Dewani (28), a British tourist, was found dead after being
abducted by armed men in Cape Town just days after she and her new
British husband, Shrien Dewani, arrived for a holiday. By Nov 18 two
suspects, both 26, were arrested. A 3rd suspect (31) was arrested on
Nov 20. On Dec 7 a court heard allegations that her husband had
connived with a taxi driver to stage a robbery and have his wife
shot dead.
(AFP, 11/14/10)(AP, 11/18/10)(AP, 11/21/10)(AFP,
12/7/10)

2010 Nov 16, It was reported
that Britain has agreed to pay hefty settlements to a group of
former Guantanamo Bay detainees who sued the government for alleged
complicity in their torture, one of the first big pay-outs stemming
from the US-led war on terrorism.
(AP, 11/16/10)
2010 Nov 16, In Argentina the
SRZero electric sports car, developed by engineers from Imperial
College London, arrived in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, ending a
70-day, 16,000 mile journey that began on July 3 at Chena Hot
Springs, Alaska. It managed as much as 6 hours and over 250 miles on
a single charge.
(SFC, 11/18/10, p.A19)

2010 Nov 17, British officers
in Sunningdale, near Ascot, stopped a van after a tip-off, causing
four men inside to try to escape. Police arrested them before
searching the vehicle, when they found a man wrapped in bags in the
back. He had been tortured and soon died.
(AP, 11/18/10)

2010 Nov 24, In Britain a
student mob attacked a police van in central London as violence
marred a second mass protest in the last fortnight against the
government's plans to triple university fees.
(AFP, 11/24/10)
2010 Nov 24, Emirati (UAR)
leaders prepared a lavish welcome for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II,
who is making her first state visit in more than 30 years to a
country with deep British ties.
(AP, 11/24/10)

2010 Nov 25, British PM David
Cameron defended a new index aimed at measuring the population's
social and environmental wellbeing rather than just its wealth.
(AFP, 11/25/10)
2010 Nov 25, Bernard Matthews
(80), Britainís largest turkey processor, died. He began in 1950
with an investment in 20 eggs. In 1953 he bought a derelict country
house, Great Witchingham Hall, where he and his wife, Joyce, raised
turkeys in all but one of the 36 rooms. It is still the company
headquarters.
(AP, 11/26/10)

2010 Nov 27, The British
government said it is paying for more than 1,000 medical staff to
work in Haiti as part of an aid package worth more than 5.6 million
pounds to help combat a deadly cholera outbreak there.
(AFP, 11/27/10)

2010 Nov 28, BP said it has
agreed to sell its 60 percent stake in Pan American Energy to
Argentina-based oil and gas firm Bridas Corporation, as part of
asset sales to pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
(AFP, 11/28/10)

2010 Nov 29, The British
government said it has issued an order to control the export of a
sedative used to execute death-row prisoners in the US. Exporters
will now be required to prove drugs will be used for legitimate
medical reasons, not execution.
(AP, 11/29/10)
2010 Nov 29, British pay-TV
giant BSkyB and Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corp. said they will
launch a free-to-air Arabic language news channel under a joint
venture.
(AFP, 11/29/10)

2010 Nov 30, British students
held a third day of protests over plans to triple university tuition
fees, with police urging them to avoid the violence that marked
earlier demonstrations. Police arrested 153 people as over 1,000
students took to the streets of London.
(AFP, 11/30/10)(SFC, 12/1/10, p.A2)

2010 Dec 2, Heavy snow caused
travel chaos across much of northern Europe, keeping London's
Gatwick airport closed for a second day and disrupting road and rail
travel in France, Germany and Switzerland. Freezing temperatures and
often blinding snowfall killed 12 people, 10 in Poland and 2 in
Germany. Poland had already reported 8 dead due to the cold. Some of
the worst floods in a century devastated parts of the Balkans.
Authorities declared a state of emergency in Bosnia, Serbia and
Montenegro.
(Reuters, 12/2/10)(AP, 12/2/10)

2010 Dec 3, Former British
Labor MP David Chaytor (61) pleaded guilty to fraud charges,
becoming the first politician to be convicted over his expenses
claims.
(AP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 3, British forecasters
issued warnings of widespread ice and hazardous conditions lasting
well into the weekend as the country's cold snap tightened its grip
and three more deaths were reported.
(AFP, 12/3/10)

2010 Dec 5, Mike Hancock (64),
a member of the British House of Commons Defense Committee, and the
European Security and Defense Assembly of the Western EU, said that
his Russian assistant, Katia Zatuliveter (25), is facing deportation
as a suspected spy. On Nov 29, 2011, a special immigration tribunal
ruled that Zatuliveter can remain in Britain because she does not
pose a threat to national security.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 11/29/11)

2010 Dec 6, British researchers
said they may have found a way to reverse damage in the central
nervous system caused by multiple sclerosis, in a study hailed by
campaigners as a major breakthrough.
(AFP, 12/6/10)

2010 Dec 7, WikiLeaks' founder
Julian Assange was remanded in custody until December 14 by a London
court after he said he would fight extradition to Sweden where he
faces rape allegations.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, John James
Audubon's "Birds of America," a rare blend of art, natural history
and craftsmanship, sold for more than $10.27 million at a London
auction, making it the world's most expensive book.
(AP, 12/7/10)

2010 Dec 9, Heavy British
police presence held off angry student protesters marching to
London's Parliament Square as lawmakers debated a controversial plan
to triple university tuition fees in England. Protesters attacked a
Rolls Royce carrying Prince Charles and wife Camilla Parker-Bowles,
as they drove through Londonís West End. The couple were not hurt.
(AP, 12/9/10)(SFC, 12/10/10, p.A6)
2010 Dec 9, Englandís
Glastonbury Holy Thorn Tree, venerated for centuries by Christians,
was chopped down overnight after a sprig from the tree was cut off
in a ceremony so it could be given to Queen Elizabeth II to decorate
her Christmas table. Religious tradition holds that the original
tree was planted by St. Joseph of Arimathea, the wealthy merchant
who volunteered his tomb to Jesus, after he first made landfall in
England some 2,000 years ago.
(AP, 12/10/10)

2010 Dec 15, British-based
explorer Tullow Oil PLC led a consortium and started producing
55,000 barrels per day from rigs off Ghana's Atlantic Ocean coast in
the Jubilee Field, which was discovered three years ago and holds an
estimated 1.8 billion barrels of oil.
(AP, 12/14/10)

2010 Dec 17, British landscape
architect Joanna Yeates (25) went missing following a night out. Her
body was found in the Failand area of Bristol on Christmas Day. She
had been strangled. On Jan 20, 2011, Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak
(32) was detained after police uncovered fresh evidence. On Oct 28
Tabak was found guilty of murder.
(AFP, 1/4/11)(AFP, 1/22/11)(Reuters, 10/28/11)

2010 Dec 18, Fresh snow brought
much of Britain to a standstill, on what is traditionally the
busiest weekend for shopping and travel in the run-up to Christmas.
Blizzards and freezing temperatures shut down runways, train tracks
and highways across Europe.
(Reuters, 12/18/10)(AP, 12/18/10)
2010 Dec 18, Andrew Lindo (29)
strangled, battered and stabbed Marie Stewart to death while their
children were asleep, at their home in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire.
Hours later, he took the two children to collect his lover, Angela
Rylance (30), spending the night with her in the bedroom where he
had carried out the brutal murder. On Sep 21 a judge ordered that
Lindo serve a minimum of 22 years behind bars.
(AFP,
9/21/11)(www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-14842805)

2010 Dec 20, British police
arrested a dozen men suspected of plotting a large-scale terror
attack, the biggest anti-terrorist sweep since April 2009, when 12
men were detained over an alleged al-Qaida bomb plot in the northern
city of Manchester.
(AP, 12/20/10)

2010 Dec 21, British man
Stephen Griffiths (40), who called himself the "Crossbow Cannibal,"
was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to killing
three prostitutes. Griffiths admitted murdering Suzanne Blamires
(36), Shelley Armitage (31) and Susan Rushworth (43), who all worked
as prostitutes near his home in Bradford.
(AP, 12/21/10)

2010 Dec 25, In London Kristy
Bamu (15) died after days of abuses in a Congolese exorcism ritual
by his sister Magalie (29) and her partner, football coach Eric
Bikubi (28). Bikubi and Magalie were found guilty of murder in 2012.
Bikubi was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison and Bamu a
minimum of 25 years.
(AFP, 3/5/12)

2010 Dec 26, Londonís
Underground drivers went on a 24-hour strike in a dispute over
holiday pay. Members of the Aslef trade union voted to walk out
after transport chiefs refused their demand for triple pay and a day
off for working on December 26, the day after Christmas being a
national holiday in Britain.
(AP, 12/26/10)

2010 Dec 31, Britain said it no
longer recognized the ambassador appointed by Ivory Coast strongman
Laurent Gbagbo who is refusing to step down after elections widely
viewed as having been won by his rival Alassane Ouattara. Britain
said it would give support at the UN for the use of force to oust
Ivory Coast's incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo if West African
nations sought backing for a military intervention.
(AFP, 12/31/10)(Reuters, 12/31/10)

2010 Richard Aldrich authored
ďGCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britainís Most Secret Intelligence
Agency."
(Econ, 7/10/10, p.80)
2010 Tom Bingham, British
jurist, authored ďThe Rule of Law."
(Econ, 2/13/10, p.84)
2010 Tony Blair, former British
prime minister, authored his memoir ďA Journey."
(Econ, 9/4/10, p.60)
2010 Douglas Hurd (b.1930),
former British foreign secretary (1989-1995), authored ďChoose Your
Weapons: The British Foreign secretary, 200 Years of Argument,
Success and Failure."
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.93)
2010 Neil MacGregor authored ďA
History of the World in 100 Objects." This followed his BBC radio
series of the same title.
(Econ, 11/6/10, p.106)
2010 Britainís Behavioral
Insights Team (BIT) was set up to help policymakers change behavior
through nudges rather than taxes or laws. BIT was spun out of the
government in 2014, and became partly owned by the Cabinet
Office, employees and Nesta, an innovation foundation.
(Econ 5/20/17, p.51)
2010 Marine biologists
predicted that Scotlandís Firth of Clyde was about to become
Britainís first ecological desert. This was based on historic catch
data in the area.
(Econ, 8/31/13, p.50)

2011 Jan 4, Mick Karn (52),
bass player in the 1980s group Japan, died in London. Karn, born in
Cyprus as Andonis Michaelides, was co-founder of Japan along with
David Sylvian and Steve Jansen. The group's 1982 album, "Tin Drum,"
included a hit song, "Ghosts."
(AP, 1/5/11)

2011 Jan 7, Former British
legislator David Chaytor (61) was jailed over the country's
lawmakers' expense check scandal, becoming the first person to be
imprisoned following the damaging affair which dented public trust
in politics. Chaytor had held a House of Commons seat in the
northern England town of Bury from 1997 to 2010. He was suspended by
the Labour Party in 2009, and stepped down as a lawmaker ahead of a
national election last May.
(AP, 1/7/11)

2011 Jan 9, Chinese Vice
Premier Li Keqiang kicked off a business-focused state visit to
Britain with the sealing of a renewable energy deal between Scottish
and Chinese companies.
(AFP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 9, British film
director Peter Yates (b.1929) died in London. His films included
ďBullitt" (1968) and ďBreaking Away" (1979).
(SFC, 1/11/11, p.C4)

2011 Jan 10, John Gross
(b.1935) English literary critic, author, and anthologist, died. His
work included the book: ďThe Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters"
(1969).
(Econ, 1/29/11,
p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gross)

2011 Jan 11, British lawmaker
Eric Illsley (55) admitted dishonestly claiming more than 14,000
pounds (16,800 euros, 21,800 dollars) in expenses, becoming the
first sitting MP to face jail over parliamentary allowances. Illsley
confirmed the next day that he planned to stand down within the next
month.
(AFP, 1/11/11)(AP, 1/12/11)

2011 Jan 15, Three former
Church of England bishops who are opposed to the consecration of
women bishops were ordained as Roman Catholic priests, the first
traditionalist Anglicans to take up an offer by Pope Benedict.
(Reuters, 1/15/11)
2011 Jan 15, British actress
Susannah York (72), one of the leading stars of British and
Hollywood films in the late 1960s and early 1970s, died in London.
She received an Oscar nomination in 1970 for her role in "They Shoot
Horses, Don't They?" and also appeared in the classic "A Man For All
Seasons" before going on to play Christopher Reeve's biological
mother in the Superman series of movies.
(AP, 1/16/11)

2011 Jan 17, British drugs firm
GlaxoSmithKline said it expects to be hit by a total legal charge of
£2.2 billion linked to its former blockbuster diabetes product
Avandia, sparking a sharp drop in its shares.
(AFP, 1/17/11)

2011 Jan 26, The British
government said it would water down controversial measures allowing
it to hold terror suspects under virtual house arrest, after a
widespread review of counter-terrorism laws.
(AFP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 26, BBC world Service
said that it would close 5 of its 32 language services, including
its Russian language radio broadcasts, and reduce its work force by
about a quarter, or up to 650 jobs.
(SFC, 1/27/11, p.A2)(Econ, 1/29/11, p.55)
2011 Jan 26, Environmental
groups accused Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell of destroying lives and
the environment in the Niger Delta, and urged Dutch MPs to intervene
as the company defended its record.
(AFP, 1/26/11)

2011 Jan 27, Britain's Times
newspaper reported that Iranís state-run news channel Press TV has
had its British bank account frozen. The English language channel,
which is headquartered in Tehran but also has an office in London,
has seen its main trading account at the National Westminster Bank
suspended.
(AFP, 1/27/11)

2011 Feb 1, BP reported its
first annual loss in almost two decades, as a result of the Gulf of
Mexico oil spill disaster, and outlined plans to shift its focus
away from the United States. BP also announced it is resuming
dividend payouts for the first time since the Gulf of Mexico well
disaster.
(AP, 2/1/11)
2011 Feb 1, Derek Rawcliffe
(89), the first Church of England bishop to be open about his
homosexuality, died. Rawcliffe disclosed his homosexuality on
television in 1995, when he was serving as an honorary bishop in
Ripon and Leeds diocese. He was dismissed the following year for
conducting blessings of same-sex couples.
(AP, 2/11/11)

2011 Feb 2, British investment
banker Christian Littlewood (37) was sentenced to 40 months in
prison for insider trading. He pleaded guilty to eight counts of
insider dealing after a Financial Services Authority (FSA)
investigation. His wife and co-conspirator Angie Littlewood was
given a 12-month suspended sentence.
(Econ, 10/15/11,
p.83)(http://tinyurl.com/6jxggd2)

2011 Feb 3, British lawmakers
demanded an explanation into why 1.85 million pounds ($2.99 million)
of foreign aid money helped pay for the pope's visit to the U.K.
last year.
(AP, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 3, Allison Cox, a
former nanny employed by the boss of a chain of British sex shops,
pleaded guilty to spiking her employer's soup with windshield washer
fluid. She admitted contaminating Jacqueline Gold's food in an
attempt to get the household's chef in trouble.
(AP, 2/3/11)

2011 Feb 5, British PM David
Cameron, in a speech to the Munich Security Conference, condemned
Britain's long-standing policy of multiculturalism as a failure,
calling for better integration of young Muslims to combat home-grown
extremism. He also said Europe must stamp out intolerance of Western
values within its own Muslim communities and far-right groups if it
is to defeat the roots of terrorism.
(AFP, 2/5/11)
2011 Feb 5, J. Paul Getty III
(b.1956), grandson of oil magnate J. Paul Getty, died in England
following a long illness. He had lost an ear to kidnappers in Rome
in 1973 and suffered a devastating stroke in his twenties that left
him severely impaired and in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
(SFC, 2/9/11, p.A4)

2011 Feb 7, Britainís Guardian
newspaper reported that scientists in Britain have successfully
tested a vaccine which could work against all known flu strains.
(AFP, 2/7/11)

2011 Feb 8, Guy Savage (42),
owner of Nashville-based Sabre Defense Industries LLC, was detained
in London after armed officers shot out the tires of his Mercedes.
He was wanted by US authorities investigating illegal weapons
trading between 2003 and 2009.
(AP, 2/15/11)(http://tinyurl.com/5v44er3)

2011 Feb 9, The British
government said it has struck a deal with the country's top banks to
curb bonus payments and boost lending to businesses as it seeks to
draw a line under a crisis that culminated in a multibillion pound
(dollar) state bailout of the sector.
(AP, 2/9/11)
2011 Feb 9, The London Stock
Exchange agreed to buy Canada's stock market operator TMX, while
Germany's Deutsche Boerse was in talks to buy NYSE Euronext,
signaling that exchanges globally are looking to consolidate.
(Reuters, 2/9/11)

2011 Feb 11, A British court
approved the extradition to the US of retired British businessman
Christopher Tappin, a man who allegedly plotted to sell missile
components to Iran. US authorities say Tappin offered in 2006 to
sell five specialized batteries for Hawk missiles for $25,000, not
knowing that his contacts were undercover US agents instead of
Iranians.
(AP, 2/11/11)

2011 Feb 15, The London-based
Gulf Dialogue Forum said intense contacts are under way among Saudi
activists and scholars to form a political party in the oil-rich
absolute monarchy. The online forum said the National Saudi Party
advocates establishing a civil democratic government because of the
recent turmoil in Tunisia and Egypt.
(AP, 2/15/11)

2011 Feb 17, Britain's
government said gay couples are to be allowed civil partnership
ceremonies in churches, erasing some of the last remaining
distinctions between gay partnerships and traditional marriages.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 17, Cyber crime costs
the British economy some 27 billion pounds ($43.5 billion) a year
and appears to be "endemic," according to the 1st official
government estimate of the issue.
(Reuters, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 17, Analysts of the
British research firm, Capital Economics, wrote that the government
of Venezuela could default on its obligations in 2012.
(Econ, 2/26/11, p.43)

2011 Feb 21, British detectives
named the country's 10 most wanted fugitives who have bolted to the
"Costa del Crime", fleeing the urban ganglands for the Spanish
sunshine.
(AFP, 2/21/11)
2011 Feb 21, British energy
giant BP and India's Reliance Industries announced a massive
investment deal which could be worth up to $20 billion with later
investment in key Indian oil and gas assets.
(AFP, 2/21/11)
2011 Feb 21, British-based
Diageo announced the takeover of Mey Icki, Turkeyís largest maker of
raki, an aniseed drink, for $2.1 billion.
(Econ, 3/5/11, p.70)
2011 Feb 21, Egypt asked
Britain for its support in seeking debt forgiveness from Europe, in
the latest push to boost an economy bruised by weeks of protests
that toppled Pres. Mubarak. Egypt owed the EU member states about $9
billion. According to central bank figures the country's total
foreign debt stood at about $34.7 billion as of the end of September
2011.
(AP, 2/22/11)

2011 Feb 23, Britain said
separating couples will be ordered to try mediation to resolve
disputes over their break up before heading to court, in a move
aimed at reducing the number of people who end up embroiled in
costly divorce battles.
(AP, 2/23/11)

2011 Feb 24, A British judge
ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (39), who rocked the US
government by publishing thousands of secret diplomatic memos, must
be extradited to Sweden to face sex crimes allegations.
(Reuters, 2/24/11)
2011 Feb 24, A British
specialist ice cream parlor planned to serve up breast milk ice
cream and says people should think of it as an organic, free-range
treat. The breast milk concoction, called the "Baby Gaga" ($23 per
serving), will be available from Feb 25 at the Icecreamists
restaurant in London's Covent Garden.
(Reuters, 2/24/11)

2011 Feb 27, Britainís Sunday
Times reported that Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing is set to clinch
the acquisition of a power distribution business in a deal which
would see him control half of Britain's electricity network.
(AFP, 2/27/11)
2011 Feb 27, Britain froze the
assets of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi in the country. The Daily
Telegraph reported that the liquid assets amount to about £20
billion.
(AFP, 3/4/11)

2011 Mar 2, Britain seized £100
million ($160 million, 117 million euros) of Libyan currency found
on a Libya-bound ship after escorting the vessel to an English port.
(AFP, 3/4/11)

2011 Mar 3, Britain released 35
previously classified files documenting sightings of UFOs,
unidentified flying objects, by the military and members of the
public dating back to the 1950s.
(Reuters, 3/4/11)

2011 Mar 10, British public
sector workers were informed that their pensions would become less
generous.
(Econ, 3/12/11, p.66)
2011 Mar 10, The Natural
History Museum in London said that it has agreed to return 138 sets
of skeletal remains of indigenous people to Australia, in what it
hailed as a new approach to the delicate subject of repatriation.
(AFP, 3/10/11)

2011 Mar 13, Broadway import
"Legally Blonde The Musical," based on the 2001 Reese Witherspoon
film, picked up this yearís Olivier Award for Best New Musical, in
the Society of London Theatre's prize-giving ceremony at the Theatre
Royal Drury Lane.
(AFP, 3/14/11)

2011 Mar 18, In India 2 British
men were sentenced to six years in jail in India for sodomizing
young boys living at the Anchorage Shelter Home in Mumbai. Charges
against Duncan Grant and John Allan Waters were originally filed in
2001.
(AFP, 3/18/11)

2011 Mar 19, British office
worker Sian O'Callaghan (22) went missing. She has not been seen
since leaving Suju nightclub in Swindon. Her mobile phone was active
in the Savernake Forest, near Malborough, just 34 minutes after she
left the nightclub.
(AP, 3/23/11)

2011 Mar 20, Britain said its
air and sea strikes on Libya had been "very successful" and stressed
it was doing everything it could to avoid civilian casualties as it
enforces a UN-sanctioned no-fly zone. at least seven demolished
tanks smoldered in a field 12 miles (20 km) south of Benghazi, many
of them with their turrets and treads blown off. Turkey was blocking
NATO action, which requires agreement by all 28 members of the
alliance.
(AFP, 3/20/11)(AP, 3/21/11)

2011 Mar 22, The British
government said it would opt in a European Union directive on human
trafficking, days after the country saw its first case of
"modern-day slavery" involving a woman trafficked from Tanzania.
(AFP, 3/22/11)

2011 Mar 24, In London Delroy
Grant (53) a former British taxi driver dubbed the "Night Stalker",
was found guilty of preying on 18 men and women over a 17-year
period. Grant had preyed on the elderly for nearly two decades and
may have assaulted scores of victims. On March 25 Grant was
sentenced to at least 27 years in prison.
(AP, 3/24/11)(AP, 3/25/11)

2011 Mar 26, Some 250,000
Britons marched through London in a demonstration against the
government's austerity measures, amid a heavy police presence that
failed to stop outbreaks of violence. More than 200 people were
arrested. Rioters went on the rampage after the rally, attacking
police and smashing up shops in a night of violence.
(AP, 3/26/11)(AFP, 3/27/11)

2011 Mar 30, Britain said it
has expelled five Libyan diplomats loyal to Moammar Gadhafi's regime
because of their intimidation of opposition supporters and their
potential threat to the UK's national security.
(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Mar 30, US officials
revealed that the CIA has sent small teams of operatives into
rebel-held eastern Libya while the White House debates whether to
arm the opposition. The British government said Libyan Foreign
Minister Moussa Koussa had arrived in Britain from Tunisia and
resigned.
(AP, 3/31/11)

2011 Mar 31, Britainís former
Labor Party MP Jim Devine was sentenced to 16 months in prison. He
had been convicted of two charges of false accounting for filing
bogus invoices for cleaning and printing work totaling more than
8,000 pounds ($13,000).
(AP, 3/31/11)
2011 Mar 31, The British
government said in a human rights report published about 1,000
people are believed to have been killed in clashes between
supporters and opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Britain
refused to offer Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa immunity from
prosecution after his apparent defection.
(AP, 3/31/11)
2011 Mar 31, Britain's Prince
Charles met with Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for talks
centering on the environment and sustainable development.
(AP, 3/31/11)

2011 Apr 2, Libyan government
forces killed six civilians in the city of Misrata in an unrelenting
campaign aimed at driving rebels from the main city they hold in the
west. Rebels claimed victory in the battle for Brega as heavy
fighting ensued around the oil town. A British delegation arrived in
Benghazi, nearly a month after a special forces team was seized in a
bungled mission to contact the rebels.
(AP, 4/2/11)(AFP, 4/2/11)(AFP, 4/3/11)

2011 Apr 4, BP said that it has
agreed to sell its ARCO Aluminum unit to a Japanese consortium for
$680 million ($421 million) as it seeks to meet the costs of last
year's disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
(AFP, 4/4/11)

2011 Apr 5, Two British tabloid
journalists were arrested on suspicion of illegally intercepting
voice-mail messages left on cell phones. Media reports identified
Neville Thurlbeck and Ian Edmondson of news of the World in the
ongoing phone-hacking scandal.
(SFC, 4/6/11, p.A3)

2011 Apr 8, British Lt. Cmdr.
Ian Molyneux, a submarine weapons engineer, was shot dead while the
submarine was docked in the southern English port of Southampton.
Able Seaman Ryan Donovan (22) was later charged with murder and the
attempted murder of 3 other crew on HMS Astute, one of Britain's
fleet of 11 nuclear-powered submarines.
(AP, 4/10/11)

2011 Apr 11, Britainís
Independent Commission on Banking, led by Sir John Vickers,
published its initial report.
(Econ, 4/16/11, p.62)

2011 Apr 14, Britain's Guardian
newspaper published a statement by the co-authors of a scathing UN
report on Israel's conduct during its 2008-2009 offensive in Gaza.
They said they stand by their work, hitting back at critics who've
pushed to have its findings withdrawn after the report's lead
author, Richard Goldstone, aired doubts about one of its central
conclusions.
(AP, 4/14/11)
2011 Apr 14, Denmark's foreign
minister said she will urge US states such as Texas and Ohio to stop
using a drug produced by a Danish company in lethal injections. Lene
Espersen said she cannot take direct action against the company that
produces pentobarbital because the drug is not exported from
Denmark. It is produced by a plant in Kansas that is owned by
Denmark's Lundbeck A/S. Britain announced it was banning the export
of three such drugs to the United States.
(AP, 4/14/11)

2011 Apr 16, In Sarasota,
Florida, British tourists James Cooper (25) and Thomas Kouzaris (24)
were found shot to death. A boy (16) was soon charged with the
killing. On March 28 Shawn Tyson (17) was sentenced to life in
prison.
(SFC, 4/19/11, p.A4)(SFC, 3/29/12, p.A7)

2011 Apr 19, Britain said it
will send a team of up 20 senior military officers to Libya to help
organize the country's haphazard opposition forces.
(AP, 4/19/11)

2011 Apr 20, In England Tina
Nash (31), a mother-of-two, was assaulted by her boyfriend at her
home in Hayle. Shane Jenkin (32) gauged out her eyes and broke her
jaw and nose. He kept Nash imprisoned for the next 12 hours,
stopping her from seeking help. On April 13, 2012, Jenkin pleaded
guilty.
(AFP,
4/13/12)(www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-13268302)

2011 Apr 24, Sir Denis Mahon
(b.1910), a renowned art collector and historian, died in London. He
left his collection to the Art Fund charity with instructions it
should be placed on display in specific venues in perpetuity.
(Reuters,
2/20/13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Mahon)

2011 Apr 29, In London Kate
Middleton married Prince William in a union that promised to
revitalize the British monarchy.
(AP, 4/29/11)
2011 Apr 29, In Northampton,
England, university lecturer Jifeng Ding (46), his wife Helen Chui
(47), and their daughters Xing (18) and Alice (12) were stabbed to
death. Anxiang Du (53), a former business associate of the family
who lived in Coventry, was named as the only suspect in the case
shortly after the bodies were discovered. On July 7, 2012, a man
believed to be Anxiang Du was arrested in Tangiers.
(AFP, 7/8/12)

2011 May 1, Britainís Foreign
Secretary William Hague said he was expelling the Libyan ambassador
to London following attacks on British embassy premises in Tripoli
blamed on Moamer Kadhafi's forces.
(AFP, 5/1/11)

2011 May 5, British voters
looked set to reject a change in the way they elect their MPs as
they cast their ballots in a national referendum that has threatened
to tear the ruling coalition apart. British voters punished the
Liberal Democrats for their role in a deficit-cutting government,
deserting the party in local elections and almost certainly
rejecting its efforts to reform the electoral system.
(AFP, 5/5/11)(AP, 5/6/11)

2011 May 16, British scientists
said they have found that a gene, called KLF14, linked to diabetes
and cholesterol is a "master switch" that controls other genes found
in fat in the body, and say it should help in the search for
treatments for obesity-related diseases.
(Reuters, 5/16/11)

2011 May 17, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth arrived in Dublin for a historic state visit steeped in
symbolism and surrounded by security after a makeshift bomb was
found, highlighting the lingering hostility of a small minority.
(AP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 17, The British
government pledged to cut the countryís carbon emissions in half by
2025 from benchmark levels of 1990.
(SFC, 5/18/11, p.A2)
2011 May 17, British defense
contractor BAE Systems said it has agreed to pay a fine of up to $79
million to settle an arms export controls case with the US
Department of State, the largest civil fine ever levied by the
department. Separately, BAE pleaded guilty in Britain to a charge
relating to payments to a former adviser in Tanzania, and agreed to
pay a fine of 30 million pounds ($49 million).
(AP, 5/17/11)

2011 May 20, A London court
sentenced a former government minister to 16 months in prison over
the largest bogus claim exposed in Britain's lawmaker expenses
scandal. Elliot Morley (58), former Labour Party politician, had
pleaded guilty last month to two charges of false accounting over
bills worth 32,000 pounds (nearly $52,000).
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 20, BP said that it
had recovered more than $1.0 billion in costs linked to last year's
devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill from a US subsidiary of
Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. MOEX USA Corporation held a
10-percent stake in the Macondo well project.
(AP, 5/20/11)

2011 May 22, The last of
Britain's military forces in Iraq pulled up anchor, ending more than
eight years of fighting militants and training security forces since
invading in 2003.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 22, Auction site eBay
said a bidder paid £81,100 ($131,648) for a silk bow hat worn by
Princess Beatrice to last monthís royal wedding. The Philip Treacy
creation was put on sale to raise money for UNICEF and Children in
crises.
(SFC, 5/23/11, p.A2)

2011 May 24, President Barack
Obama and wife Michelle Obama were welcomed to Buckingham Palace in
grand royal style by Queen Elizabeth II as they began their official
state visit to Britain.
(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May 24, About 250 flights
to northern Britain were canceled over concerns about the ash cloud
spewing from an Icelandic volcano, but British and Irish officials
dismissed fears of a mass shutdown of airspace.
(Reuters, 5/24/11)

2011 May 31, Britainís Lord
John Taylor (58) of Warwick, a Conservative member of the House of
Lords, became the fifth lawmaker to be jailed over the scandal which
rocked British politics in 2009. Taylor, a former lawyer, was
sentenced to months in jail. He became the first black Conservative
peer when he took his seat in the House of Lords in 1996.
(AFP, 5/31/11)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.67)

2011 May, Britain's Serious
Fraud Office convicted Edward Davenport (45) and five of his cronies
of defrauding victims of millions of pounds. They had set up a
company that claimed to have money to lend for major commercial
projects. The gang was estimated to have collected more than 4
million pounds ($6.2 million) from victims.
(AP, 10/5/11)

2011 Jun 2, In London
Nobel-winning writer V.S. Naipaul (78) faced criticism for saying he
does not regard any female authors as his equal, even famed novelist
Jane Austen, because they are "sentimental."
(AFP, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 2, In Britain an
explosion at a Chevron oil refinery in Pembroke, Wales, killed four
contractors.
(SFC, 6/3/11, p.A2)

2011 Jun 6, In Britain Asim
Kauser (25), a British national, was arrested at his home following
an operation by the North West Counter Terrorism Unit. The alleged
offenses took place between January 2009 and June 2011.
(AP, 6/16/11)

2011 Jun 9, London said it will
allow the Scottish Government to start borrowing money for
infrastructural investment from 2011, earlier than a proposal to
give Scotland full borrowing powers from April 2015.
(Reuters, 2/16/12)

2011
Jun 15, In London, police arrested two men on suspicion of trying to
kidnap and murder soul singer Joss Stone. Suspects Junior Bradshaw
and Kevin Liverpool, were arrested near Stoneís country home; they
were said to be in possession of swords, rope, and a body
bag.
(AFP, 6/15/11)

2011 Jun 16, The British
government set out legislation to return the task of overseeing
banks to the Bank of England.
(Econ, 6/25/11, p.69)

2011 Jun 20, British police
arrested a man (19) suspected of hacking attacks on intíl.
businesses and intelligence agencies. The arrest took place
following a joint operation by its Internet crimes unit and the FBI.
Police would not say whether the man is believed to be linked to
either the Anonymous or Lulz Security (LulzSec) hacking collectives,
which have called for "war" on governments that control the Internet
and claimed responsibility for a string of high-profile attacks on
targets such as Sony, the CIA web page and the US Senate computer
system.
(AP, 6/21/11)(SFC, 6/23/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 20, British-based
Rolls-Royce said it had won an order worth $2.2 billion to supply
its Trent XWB jet engines to power the Airbus A350 long-haul planes
bought by Brazil's TAM airlines.
(AFP, 6/20/11)
2011 Jun 20, Google and the
British Library announced an agreement that will let Internet users
read, search, download and copy thousands of texts published between
1700 and 1870.
(AP, 6/20/11)

2011 Jun 23, A British court
convicted Levi Bellfield (43) of abducting and murdering Milly
Dowler (13) after she walked past his home in 2002. It took Milly's
parents Bob and Sally nine years to get justice, even though her
killer had been living 50 yards from where she was last seen in
Station Avenue, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. The former wheelclamper
and bouncer went on to kill Miss McDonnell and to murder Amelie
Delagrange (22), and attempt to murder Kate Sheedy (18) in 2004.
Bellfield was jailed for life for those crimes in February 2008 and
was told he would never be released.
(AFP, 6/24/11)(SFC, 7/6/11, p.A5)

2011 Jun 27, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao and British PM David Cameron signed trade deals worth
£1.4 billion at a summit as Wen faced questions over his country's
rights record. Jiabao proceeded to Berlin for a visit that with
Chancellor Angela Merkel.
(AP, 6/27/11)(Reuters, 6/27/11)

2011 Jun 28, British
immigration officials arrested Arab-Israeli Islamist leader Sheikh
Raed Saleh after he returned from an event in the central English
city of Leicester.
(AP, 6/29/11)

2011 Jun 29, Britainís first
nationwide study into the scale of child grooming on its streets has
identified more than 2,000 victims. The Child Exploitation and
Online Protection Center (CEOP) report said the victims were aged 14
and 15 and female.
(AFP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jun 29, In Hong Kong
Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung (51), a one-time hairdresser
turned football tycoon, was arrested by police. The next day he
appeared in court and was charged with money-laundering. Prosecutors
said investigations had revealed around HK$720 million ($92 million)
passing through accounts connected with Yeung. He was released on
HK$7 million ($900,000) bail following a brief appearance at the
magistrates court.
(AFP, 6/30/11)

2011 Jun 30, British teachers
and public service workers swapped classrooms and offices for picket
lines as hundreds of thousands walked off the job to protest pension
cuts.
(AP, 6/30/11)

2011 Jul 2, British mobile
phone giant Vodafone said it is taking full control of its Indian
joint venture by buying out its local partner Essar Group.
(AFP, 7/2/11)
2011 Jul 2, In Germany Wladimir
Klitschko of the Ukraine became the undisputed world heavyweight
champion by beating Great Britain's David Haye on a unanimous points
decision at Hamburg's football stadium.
(AFP, 7/2/11)

2011 Jul 5, British MPs said
the Ministry of Defense lost track of £6.3 billion ($10.1 billion, 7
billion euros) of equipment, as they urged the Ministry of Defence
to get a grip on stock control.
(AFP, 7/5/11)
2011 Jul 5, News International
acknowledged that it gave Londonís Metropolitan Police a set of
e-mails documenting payments from News of the World journalists in
2003 and after.
(Econ, 7/9/11, p.53)

2011 Jul 6, British PM David
Cameron confirmed that the UK will withdraw 500 troops from
Afghanistan by the end of 2012.
(AP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 6, Britain's tabloid
phone hacking scandal dominated the airways as it swelled to
allegedly involve more missing schoolgirls and the families of
London terror victims. Lawmakers held an emergency debate, companies
hastily pulled their ads and the prime minister demanded two new
inquiries.
(AP, 7/6/11)

2011 Jul 7, Rupert Murdoch
caused astonishment when he killed off the 168-year-old News of the
World after it was dogged by allegations that it hacked the
voicemails of a teenage murder victim and the families of dead
soldiers. This was widely seen as a way to quell the scandal and
save the bid by his News Corp. for control of the satellite
broadcaster BSkyB, on which the British government is due to decide.
(AFP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 7, British officers
arrested Eneko Gogeaskoetxea Arronategui (44), a suspected Basque
separatist, in connection with a 1997 attempted assassination of
Spain's King Juan Carlos. The arrest came a day after the arrest of
ETA suspect Daniel Derguy on terrorism charges in Cahors, France.
(AFP, 7/7/11)

2011 Jul 8, Britainís PM David
Cameron said he would establish a full public inquiry led by a judge
into the News of the World scandal. London's Metropolitan Police
arrested Andy Coulson (43), Cameron's ex-media chief, "in connection
with allegations of corruption and phone hacking." Coulson was
editor of Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper from 2003 to
2007. Police also re-arrested Clive Goodman (53), the News of the
World's former royal editor, who was jailed in 2007 for hacking the
voicemails of Princes William and Harry.
(AFP, 7/8/11)

2011 Jul 9, British author Alan
Shadrake (76), who spent five weeks in Singaporeís new Changi Prison
for contempt after publishing a book questioning executions in the
city-state, was deported to London, hours after being released.
(AFP, 7/9/11)

2011 Jul 10, Britain's News of
the World was published for the last time after the tabloid was axed
amid the phone-hacking scandal, as its owner Rupert Murdoch flew in
to take charge of managing the crisis.
(AFP, 7/10/11)

2011 Jul 11, Southern Cross,
the financially-troubled owner of 752 care homes in Britain, said
that it is to close, although its 31,000 residents will continue to
receive care. The company said in a statement that it plans to cease
operating and hand its homes over to its landlords.
(AP, 7/11/11)

2011 Jul 12, Lottery operator
Camelot announced that a British ticket holder has won a record £161
million (185 million euros) in the Euromillions lottery.
(AFP, 7/13/11)

2011 Jul 13, Media mogul Rupert
Murdoch dramatically dropped his bid for control of pay-TV giant
BSkyB, bowing to pressure from the British government over the
phone-hacking firestorm at his newspaper empire.
(AFP, 7/14/11)
2011 Jul 13, In eastern England
a powerful explosion at a suspected illegal alcohol distillery in
Lincolnshire killed five men and seriously injured another.
(AP, 7/14/11)

2011 Jul 14, British police
arrested Neil Wallis (60), another former News of the World
executive, in connection with the phone hacking scandal at the
tabloid. Wallis was deputy editor at the 168-year-old title from
2003 to 2007 under editor Andy Coulson.
(AFP, 7/14/11)
2011 Jul 14, Britain's
Department for International Development (DFID) announced it was
suspending budgetary aid to Malawi over poor governance, as
fast-deteriorating relations between the two countries reached a new
low. The Malawi opposition quickly blamed President Bingu wa
Mutharika's "sheer arrogance" for the decision.
(AFP, 7/15/11)

2011 Jul 15, BBC journalists
began a 24-hour strike in a row over job losses, disrupting some of
the British broadcaster's flagship programs.
(AFP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 15, Rebekah Brooks
(43), the embattled chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's British
newspaper wing, quit as the phone hacking scandal forced the
once-mighty media baron to sacrifice his cherished aide. Les Hinton,
chide executive of the Murdoch owned Dow Jones & Co., published
of the Wall Street Journal, also announced his resignation.
(AP, 7/15/11)(SFC, 7/16/11, p.A4)
2011 Jul 15, Christian Emde
(28) and Robert Baum (24) were arrested in the English port town of
Dover. In 2012 the 2 German men pleaded guilty to possessing
information useful for terrorist acts.
(AP, 2/6/12)

2011 Jul 17, London police
arrested Rebekah Brooks (43), Rupert Murdoch's former British CEO,
in the phone hacking and police bribery scandal. The former News of
the World editor said she was assisting the police with their
inquiries.
(AP, 7/17/11)

2011 Jul 18, In Britain senior
Metropolitan police officer John Yates, who in 2009 refused to
reopen an investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World
tabloid, resigned. British police said Sean Hoare, the whistleblower
reporter who alleged widespread hacking at the News of the World,
has been found dead.
(AFP, 7/18/11)(AP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 18, British PM David
Cameron sought to bridge the gap with South African President Jacob
Zuma over the Libya conflict on a visit overshadowed by the
phone-hacking scandal back home. The focus of Cameron's trip was on
boosting trade with a continent.
(AP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 18, Lulz Security
(LulzSec) hacker group attacked the website of the Rupert Murdoch
owned Sun newspaper, replacing the online version with a fake story
pronouncing the mogul's death.
(AFP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 18, Hong Kong ordered
pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to recall an antibiotic used to
treat infections in children after tests revealed the British firm's
Augmentin antibiotic tablet contained several plasticizers,
including diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP).
(AFP, 7/19/11)

2011 Jul 19, Britainís PM David
Cameron visited Nigeria, pushing a message of trade, aid and
democracy before making an early return home to deal with the
spiraling phone hacking crisis. Fresh clashes between Muslim and
Christian youths left five people dead and 12 seriously injured in
Jos.
(AFP, 7/19/11)(AFP, 7/20/11)
2011 Jul 19, Britain's
competition watchdog reiterated its ruling for Spanish-owned
airports operator BAA to sell two more airports including London
Stansted followed by Edinburgh or Glasgow Airport.
(AFP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 18, Lulz Security
hacker group attacked the website of the Rupert Murdoch owned Sun
newspaper, replacing the online version with a fake story
pronouncing the mogul's death.
(AFP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 19, British health
bosses at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, where three patients
died after contaminated saline solution was found, said they were
dealing with a "criminal act." Two more people died on July 14 and
July 21. On July 20 Rebecca Leighton, a 26-year-old nurse at the
hospital, was arrested on suspicion of murder. On August 2
prosecutors dropped their case against.
(AFP, 7/19/11)(AP, 7/20/11)(AP, 7/22/11)(AFP,
9/3/11)

2011 Jul 20, Lucian Freud
(b.1922), Berlin-born realist painter, died in London. The grandson
of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud was widely seen as Britain's top
contemporary artist. In 2013 Geordie Greig authored ďBreakfast with
Lucian: The Astounding Lie and Outrageous Times of Britainís Great
Modern Painter."
(AFP,
7/22/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_Freud)(Econ, 10/26/13,
p.94)

2011 Jul 21, Britainís
Financial Services Authority said it has fined insurance broker
Willis Limited nearly £7 million for failing to ensure payments to
overseas third parties were not used for corrupt purposes. The
announcement came after Britain earlier this month implemented new
bribery laws.
(AFP, 7/21/11)
2011 Jul 21, Afghan security
forces took over responsibility for the city of Herat, the country's
western capital. 2 British nationals were reported detained in Herat
as part of a counter-terrorism operation to stop a possible attack
back home.
(AFP, 7/21/11)

2011 Jul 23, Thousands of
people marched through the streets of Derby protesting the British
governmentís decision to award a contract for new trains to Siemens,
German engineering company.
(Econ, 7/30/11, p.51)cc
2011 Jul 23, Amy Winehouse
(b.1983), the beehived soul-jazz diva whose self-destructive habits
overshadowed a distinctive musical talent, was found dead in her
London home. On Oct 26 an inquest was told she had suddenly drunk
heavily after abstaining from alcohol for three weeks and was
poisoned by alcohol.
(AP,
7/24/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Winehouse)(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Jul 23, In Afghanistan
NATO troops handed control of the northern capital Mazar-i-Sharif to
local forces. It was the sixth of seven areas to transition to
Afghan control. A NATO helicopter attack wounded 5 children in
Helmand province. On July 25 Britain took responsibility for the
attack, voicing "deep regret" and saying an investigation was under
way.
(AFP, 7/23/11)(AFP, 7/25/11)

2011 Jul 27, Britain officially
recognized Libya's main opposition group as the country's legitimate
government, and expelled all diplomats from Moammar Gadhafi's
regime.
(AP, 7/27/11)
2011 Jul 27, Scottish teenager
Jake Davis (18) was arrested with 16 computers in the Shetland
Islands. This was the alleged nerve center of Lulz Security
(LulzSec), a group of internet hackers whose targets included
computer-security and online gaming firms. The group had broken from
Anonymous, another hacker group, three months earlier. Ryan Cleary
(19) was arrested in June at his home in Wickford, Essex, charged
with attacking websites as part of LulzSec.
(Econ, 8/6/11,
p.49)(http://shetlopedia.com/Jake_Davis)(AFP, 8/30/11)

2011 Jul 28, Britainís Business
Secretary Vince Cable said he is to scrap a raft of "ridiculous"
business regulations including alcohol licenses to sell chocolate
liqueurs and age limits on buying Christmas crackers.
(AFP, 7/28/11)

2011 Aug 1, BBC journalists
began a second 24-hour strike in a row over job losses, threatening
disruption to some of the broadcaster's flagship programs.
(AFP, 8/1/11)

2011 Aug 2, Londonís
Metropolitan Police, investigating phone hacking and police bribery
at the defunct British tabloid News of the World, arrested Stuart
Kuttner (71), a former News of the World managing editor.
(AP, 8/2/11)

2011 Aug 3, British officials
said they have seized about 300 million pounds ($492 million) worth
of cocaine in a record-setting drug bust on a pleasure boat. 1.2
tons of cocaine were found hidden in a specially-designed
compartment on a boat docked in southern England in June and it took
six days of searching the Louise to find the drugs. Six men arrested
were all Dutch nationals.
(AP, 8/3/11)

2011 Aug 4, In Britain north
London police shot and killed Mark Duggan (29) during an attempted
arrest in Tottenham. See August 6. The family only learned of the
death of their son from watching television.
(Econ, 8/13/11, p.51)(AFP, 8/7/11)(AFP, 2/29/12)

2011 Aug 5, In the Norwegian
Arctic archipelago of Svalbard a polar bear mauled one person to
death and left four other members of a British youth expeditions
group seriously injured.
(AFP, 8/5/11)

2011 Aug 6, A riot tore through
parts of north London's deprived Tottenham neighborhood. 8 officers
were hospitalized after a peaceful protest against the Aug 4
shooting death of Mark Duggan (29), a passenger in a minicab,
degenerated into a Saturday night rampage. The riots soon spread to
Birmingham and other cities and involved as many as 15,000 people.
(AP, 8/7/11)(AFP, 8/7/11)(Econ, 8/4/12, p.51)
2011 Aug 6, The group known as
Anonymous said it has hacked into some 70 law enforcement websites
across the southern and central United States in retaliation for
arrests of its sympathizers in the U.S. and Britain.
(AP, 8/6/11)

2011 Aug 7, Nancy Wake (98),
Australia's greatest World War II heroine, died in London. She was a
prominent figure in the French Resistance.
(AFP, 8/8/11)(Econ, 8/13/11, p.82)

2011 Aug 8, London police said
they had arrested 100 people in a second night of rioting,
condemning it as "copycat" disorder following weekend unrest sparked
by the death of a man in a police shooting.
(AFP, 8/8/11)

2011 Aug 9, British PM David
Cameron recalled Parliament from its summer recess and nearly
tripled the number of police on the streets rioting in London
blossomed into a full-blown political crisis. A 26-year-old was
found shot dead in a car. A Scotland Yard official said 525 people
have now been arrested in London after three days of "unprecedented"
rioting.
(AP, 8/9/11)

2011 Aug 10, London police
arrested former News of the World news editor Greg Miskiw (61) on
suspicion of hacking phones, the 12th person detained over the
long-running scandal.
(AFP, 8/10/11)(AFP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 10, Britons took to
social networking sites to expose the rioters who went on the
rampage for four nights, posting photos of masked gangs looting and
hurling missiles. Three Asian men died after being hit by a car
during riots in the Winson Green area of Birmingham. Witnesses said
they died while trying to protect their community from looters. On
Aug 13 a man and teenager were charged with the murder of three men.
On July 19, 2012, eight men were cleared of murdering the three
friends who died after being hit by a car.
(AP, 8/14/11)(AFP, 7/19/12)

2011 Aug 11, Police in London
raided houses to round up more rioting suspects as Britain's big
cities remained largely quiet after four days of rioting and looting
that drew thousands of police officers onto the streets. The four
days of riots left five people dead, thousands facing criminal
charges and hundreds of millions in damages.
(AP, 8/11/11)(AP, 8/15/11)

2011 Aug 12, Royal Dutch Shell
PLC said it is trying to stop oil leaking from a flow line at one of
its drilling platforms in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland.
On Aug 15 Shell estimated that 54,600 gallons had leaked from the
Gannet Alpha oil rig. On Aug 16 Shell said a 2nd smaller leak had
been found at the rig.
(AP, 8/13/11)(SFC, 8/16/11, p.A4)(SFC, 8/17/11,
p.A3)

2011 Aug 16, In Britain a
16-year-old boy was ordered to stand trial for the murder of a
retiree attacked when he confronted rioters in London. Richard Bowes
(68) was found lying in a street during violence in Ealing, on Aug.
8. He died of head injuries three days later.
(AP, 8/16/11)

2011 Aug 19, In England Judith
Richardson (77) was found battered to death with a hammer in Hexam,
Northumberland. Graeme Jarman (47), serial sex attacker, was
suspected in the murder. He went missing after failing to appear in
court on a shoplifting charge on August 23.
(AFP, 8/30/11)
2011 Aug 19, In Afghanistan 5
suicide attackers stormed a British compound in Kabul, killing at
least 8 people in a series of explosions and a more than eight-hour
gunfight on the anniversary of the country's 1919 independence from
Britain.
(AP, 8/19/11)

2011 Aug 20, A British military
Red Arrows jet crashed while taking part in an air show in
Bournemouth. Lt. John Egging (33) was the first Red Arrows pilot to
die since 1978, when two were killed in a training accident. The Red
Arrows display team were formed in 1965.
(AP, 8/20/11)

2011 Aug 22, John Howard Davies
(72), a BAFTA award winning comedy director, died in Oxfordshire. He
produced TV comedy classics including "Fawlty Towers" and the "Good
Life." He won his first BAFTA for best director for the first series
of "Monty Python's Flying Circus."
(AFP, 8/23/11)

2011 Aug 25, Libyan rebels
battled forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi on the streets of
Tripoli. European officials confirmed that small numbers of
British, French and other special forces have been working inside
Libya in recent months.
(AP, 8/25/11)

2011 Aug 26, In Britain the
makers of painkiller Nurofen Plus recalled the tablets after
anti-psychotic and epilepsy drugs were found to have been placed in
packets in acts of suspected sabotage.
(AP, 8/27/11)

2011 Aug 28, British Police
arrested a 28-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder of two
Metropolitan Police officers during the height of the London riots
earlier in August.
(AP, 8/28/11)

2011 Aug 31, Britain's biggest
retailer Tesco announced that it is pulling out of Japan after eight
years and putting its 129 small supermarkets on sale to focus on
other operations in Asia.
(AP, 8/31/11)

2011 Sep 2, Lebanese imam,
Sheikh Maymun Zarzur, was killed after leading prayers at the Muslim
Welfare House in London. Scotland Yard said they had made one
arrest. The Muslim Welfare House was founded in 1970 functioning as
a community center.
(AFP, 9/3/11)

2011 Sep 3, English Defense
League far-right protesters clashed with London police during a
demonstration held despite a ban on marches in six parts of
Britain's capital.
(AP, 9/3/11)

2011 Sep 8, British fashion
icon John Galliano (50) was convicted of anti-Semitism for hurling
abuse at bar patrons in Paris' Jewish quarter in a career-breaking
outburst he has blamed on drink and drugs. In the French trial in
July Galliano apologized for his conduct. He received suspended
fines totaling 6,000-euro (£5,200, $8,400).
(AFP, 9/8/11)

2011 Sep 9, The British
government said it would ban lawyers paying fees to people who refer
accident victims to them, earning plaudits from insurers that say
the practice has encouraged spurious claims and forced them to
charge customers more.
(Reuters, 9/9/11)
2011 Sep 9, A British judge
sentenced Munir Farooqi (54), a former Taliban fighter, to life in
prison for trying to recruit holy warriors for jihad in Afghanistan.
Farooqi was arrested in a counterterrorism operation on Nov. 16,
2009 along with his 27-year-old son, Harris, and two other men
Matthew Newton and Israr Malik. Farooqi's son was acquitted on one
terror charge, while Newton was jailed for six years and Malik given
an "Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection," and told he must
serve a minimum of five years before parole is considered.
(AP, 9/9/11)

2011 Sep 11, British police
said they have freed 24 men believed to have been held against their
will, some for more than a decade. Four men and a woman were
arrested under a slavery act introduced last year after the
operation involving more than 200 police officers.
(AP, 9/11/11)(Reuters, 9/12/11)
2011 Sep 11, Kenya police said
armed men killed a British man and kidnapped his wife from a beach
resort in the north near the border with lawless Somalia.
(AP, 9/11/11)

2011 Sep 13, Westfield
Stratford City, Europe's biggest urban shopping center, opened in a
deprived area of east London where it will act as the gateway to the
2012 Olympics.
(AFP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 13, British pop art
pioneer Richard Hamilton (b.1922) died. His work ranged from images
of consumer culture to parodies of political leaders. One of his
best-known works was the plain white cover for the Beatlesí "White
Album" of 1968.
(AFP,
9/14/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hamilton_%28artist%29)
2011 Sep 13, In Nigeria
Kindreck Dion Lee (34), one of Britain's most wanted drug and
firearm suspects, was arrested in Lagos. He was wanted for his
alleged involvement in bringing cocaine, cannabis, firearms and
ammunition into the country from Amsterdam.
(AFP, 9/16/11)

2011 Sep 15, British PM David
Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave Libya's new rulers
strong support during a landmark visit to Tripoli, vowing to release
billions of dollars more in frozen assets and to push ahead with
NATO strikes against Gadhafi's last strongholds. 11 fighters were
killed and 34 wounded in a first assault on Sirte launched before
sunset.
(AP, 9/15/11)(AFP, 9/16/11)
2011 Sep 15, British police
arrested Kweku Adoboli (31) in London after the rogue trader at
Swiss bank UBS lost an estimated $2.3 billion in unauthorized
trades. On Sep 24 UBS announced the resignation of CEO Oswald
Gruebel.
(AFP, 9/15/11)(AFP, 9/16/11)(SSFC, 9/25/11,
p.A15)
2011 Sep 15, British scientists
reported that fluctuating levels of the brain chemical serotonin,
often brought on when someone hasn't eaten or is stressed, affect
brain regions that enable people to regulate anger.
(Reuters, 9/15/11)
2011 Sep 15, In Britainís south
Wales a mine flooded at the Gleision Colliery near Swansea. 4 miners
died after being trapped by the flooding.
(AFP, 9/16/11)

2011 Sep 19, Bailiffs preparing
to clear residents from Britain's biggest settlement of travelers
entered the site for the first time and urged protesters to stop
obstructing the eviction.
(AFP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 19, Luxury car maker
Jaguar Land Rover, part of Indian group Tata Motors, said it will
invest 355 million pounds on a new engine plant in central England.
The British government will provide up to 10 million pounds for a
plant expected to create 750 jobs and thousands of jobs across the
wider economy.
(Reuters, 9/19/11)

2011 Sep 22, The book "Julian
Assange: The Unauthorized Autobiography" went on sale in Britain,
against the wishes of Assange (40), who condemned his publisher for
releasing it.
(AP, 9/22/11)
2011 Sep 22, US biotech company
Advanced Cell Technology said it will soon begin the first-ever
European trials using human embryonic stem cells in an experimental
treatment for people with a form of juvenile blindness. The
clearance to begin the European trials came from the UK Medicines
and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the Gene Therapy
Advisory Committee. The same Massachusetts-based company became the
first to launch a US trial of embryonic stem cells to treat
Stargardt's disease in November 2010.
(AP, 9/22/11)
2011 Sep 22, Aid agency Oxfam
said in a report that at least 22,500 Ugandans have been forced from
their homes to make way for New Forests Company, a British timber
company founded in 2004, and called for an investigation into
alleged abuses. The evictions stopped in July 2010.
(AFP, 9/22/11)

2011 Sep 23, British police
arrested Christopher McGuire (30). He was charged the next day with
placing anti-psychotic and epilepsy drugs in packets of the
painkiller Nurofen Plus.
(AFP, 9/25/11)

2011 Sep 24, In Britain
thousands of Muslims rallied at Londonís Wembley arena to promote a
moderate version of Islam. The rally was led by Muhammad
Tahir-ul-Qadri, a Pakistani-born Islamic scholar.
(SSFC, 9/25/11, p.A4)
2011 Sep 24, In Britain a
mother and five of her children were killed when a fire tore through
a house in the Neasden district of northwest London.
(AFP, 9/24/11)

2011 Sep 26, A new British law,
the Prisoners' Earnings Act, went into effect. Inmates earning more
than £20 ($31, Ä23) a week after deductions will see 40% deducted
from what remains.
(AFP, 9/26/11)

2011 Sep 28, A British High
Court judge said in a landmark ruling that a brain-damaged,
minimally conscious woman should not be allowed to die.
(Reuters, 9/28/11)
2011 Sep 28, In London Reginald
Davis, a 77-year-old man from Australia, was charged with a string
of child sex attacks dating back to 1949.
(AFP, 9/28/11)

2011 Sep 29, British police and
medical regulators said Russian gangs and their Chinese associates
are making billions of dollars from selling fake and unlicensed
medicines over the Internet, putting thousands of people at risk.
More than 2.5 million doses of counterfeit, controlled and withdrawn
drugs were seized across 79 countries in seven days of raids
coordinated by international police organization Interpol under an
operation codenamed Pangea that ended on Sep 27.
(Reuters, 9/29/11)

2011 Oct 1, Cigarette vending
machines were banned in England, a move the government hopes will
cut the numbers of children smoking.
(AFP, 10/1/11)
2011 Oct 1, Mitchell Harrison
(23), a convicted child rapist, was found dead in his cell at HM
Prison Frankland, England. He was jailed in 2009 for raping a
13-year-old girl in Kendal, Cumbria. A post-mortem found he died
from multiple injuries. Two men, aged 32 and 23, were soon charged
with his murder.
(AFP, 10/3/11)

2011 Oct 4, British company
Heritage Oil PLC said that it has acquired a controlling interest in
a Libyan company licensed to provide oil field services including
offshore and land-based drilling. Heritage said it paid $19.5
million for a 51% stake in Sahara Oil Services Holdings Ltd.
(AP, 10/4/11)

2011 Oct 5, A prosecutor told a
London court that 2 Pakistani cricketers took bribes to fix parts of
a match against England in a case that exposes "rampant corruption"
at the heart of the international game.
(AFP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, Datawind, a British
technology company, released a student tablet costing $35. It
claimed to have developed the world's least expensive computer
tablet for wireless Internet access. In February, 2012, Datawind
released an updated version of the Aakash computer tablet for the
commercial market that costs $50.
(AFP, 2/19/12)(http://tinyurl.com/79ngd6m)

2011 Oct 6, The Bank of England
launched a second round of quantitative easing to defend Britain's
faltering economy against the euro zone debt crisis, pledging to buy
75 billion pounds of assets with new money in a dramatic move to
stave off recession.
(Reuters, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, Britain and
Switzerland signed an agreement to tax money kept by British
residents in secret Swiss bank accounts, a move which could net the
British government billions of pounds and help Swiss banking clean
up its image. The deal, which must still be approved by the
parliaments of both countries, should come into force in 2013.
(Reuters, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, The British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said it is to cut around 2,000 jobs
as the publicly-funded broadcaster makes savings as part of
government efforts to reduce a record deficit.
(AFP, 10/6/11)

2011 Oct 7, Dubai's flagship
Emirates airline said it will sponsor Britain's first urban cable
car spanning London's river Thames, saying it hoped the new addition
to the city's skyline would be ready for next year's Olympics. The
10-year-deal was valued at 36 million pounds.
(Reuters, 10/7/11)

2011 Oct 10, Pirates of Somalia
attacked the Italian cargo ship Montecristo carrying a crew of 23.
US and British Navy ships freed the ship and 11 pirates were
apprehended.
(AP, 10/11/11)

2011 Oct 14, Britain's defense
minister Liam Fox quit his post after days of allegations about the
influence-peddling of a close personal friend who joined key visits
overseas and posed as an unofficial aide. PM David Cameron appointed
Philip Hammond as the new defense minister.
(AP, 10/14/11)(Reuters, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 14, A British pilot
(29) and his passenger (40) died in the crash of their small plane
in Switzerland.
(AFP, 10/15/11)

2011 Oct 15, Around 800 people
rallied in London's financial heart amid a heavy police presence as
part of world protests against corporate greed and budget cutbacks.
Protesters began occupying the front of St. Paulís Cathedral.
(AFP, 10/15/11)(Econ, 11/5/11, p.67)
2011 Oct 15, British actress
Betty Driver (91) died. The much-loved actress had starred for
42 years on "Coronation Street," Britain's longest-running
television soap opera.
(AFP, 10/16/11)

2011 Oct 16, Several hundred
protesters spent the night overnight outside St Paul's Cathedral in
London's financial district, as the anti-capitalism demonstration
entered its second day.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 16, In Nevada British
IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon died after a horrific 15-car crash at the
Las Vegas Motor Speedway which left the motor sports world in shock.
(AP, 10/17/11)

2011 Oct 16, In Nevada British
IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon (33) died after a horrific 15-car crash
at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway which left the motor sports world in
shock.
(Reuters, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 16, Kenya police
arrested two British men (18), one of Pakistani origin and the other
of Somali origin, in the resort town of Lamu on suspicion of trying
to join Somali militants. Police said the men would be deported.
Mohamed Mohamed Abdallah, of Somali descent, and Iqbal Shahzad, of
Pakistani descent were deported to Britain on Oct 26. British
authorities arrested them under terrorism laws and then freed them
six hours later.
(AP, 10/18/11)(AFP, 10/20/11)

2011 Oct 18, British writer
Julian Barnes (65) won the Booker Prize for fiction for his novel
ďThe Sense of an Ending, a novel about youth and memory.
(SFC, 10/19/11, p.E4)(Econ, 4/6/13, p.97)

2011 Oct 19, Britainís
Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said an energy act,
which aims to boost energy efficiency in residential homes, is now
law.
(Reuters, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, British police in
riot gear used sledgehammers and crowbars to clear the way for the
eviction of Irish Travelers from the Dale Farm site, in fields 30
miles (50 km) east of London, where they have lived illegally for a
decade. There are estimated to be between 15,000 and 30,000 Irish
Travelers in Britain, where they are recognized as a distinct ethnic
minority.
(AP, 10/19/11)

2011 Oct 21, A Lithuanian judge
found Michael Campbell (39), an Irish man, guilty of trying to buy
weapons and explosives in a six-year sting orchestrated by Britain's
domestic spy agency MI5, a case that drew attention to a hardcore
Irish Republican Army splinter group's plans to spread terror to
London. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for weapons offenses
and supporting a terrorist group.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, George Daniels
(85), English master watchmaker, died.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.106)

2011 Oct 22, Anti-capitalist
protesters set up a second camp in London, as they marked one week
of demonstrations outside St Paul's Cathedral, which forced the
300-year-old monument to close a day earlier.
(AFP, 10/23/11)

2011 Oct 24, The British
government won a House of Commons vote by 483 votes to 111 due to
support from the Liberal Democrats as 79 Tory MPs voted in favor of
a referendum on Britain's relationship with Europe. The Tory
eurosceptic wing ignored PM Cameron's plea that it was the wrong
time for a referendum because of the debt crisis engulfing the
eurozone.
(AFP, 10/25/11)

2011 Oct 28, St. Paulís
Cathedral reopened after a weeklong closure triggered by protest
against economic inequality and corporate greed. The City of London
Corporation said it was launching legal action on the grounds that
the protest is an "unreasonable user of the highway." Scores of
tents are pitched on the pedestrianized square in front of the
cathedral and near a footpath alongside the building.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, Commonwealth
leaders agreed to drop rules that give sons precedence as heir to
the throne and bar anyone in line for the crown from marrying a
Roman Catholic. The agreement came on the sidelines of a
Commonwealth summit presided over by the Queen in the west
Australian city of Perth. Current succession rules, dating back to
1688 and 1700, were designed to ensure a Protestant monarchy, and
bar anyone in line to the throne from marrying a Catholic.
(Reuters, 10/28/11)

2011 Oct 29, Jimmy Savile
(b.1926), popular British children's TV entertainer, died. His gold
coffin went on public display and he was lauded as a "national
treasure" who had raised millions of pounds for good causes. In 2012
allegations that Savile sexually abused young girls for decades
first emerged in an expose on the TV channel ITV. Since then, police
say some 300 victims had come forward.
(AP,
10/28/12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Savile)

2011 Oct 30, Britainís PM David
Cameron announced that British merchant ships traveling around the
Horn of Africa will for the first time be able to carry armed guards
to protect them from pirates.
(AFP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 30, Venezuela's Pres.
Chavez ordered the expropriation of 716,590 acres belonging to a
British-owned company amid a disagreement over compensation for
earlier takeovers of ranchland from the firm. Chavez announced the
latest seizure after saying that Venezuela refuses to pay
compensation in foreign currency to Agropecuaria Flora, a local
subsidiary of the British company Vestey Group.
(AP, 10/30/11)

2011 Oct 31, The head of
British intelligence agency GCHQ warned of a "disturbing" rise in
cyber attacks on the country's government and industry systems which
he said risked damaging the economy.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, EDF Energy
submitted its application to build the first new nuclear power plant
in Britain, the country's Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC)
confirmed in a statement.
(Reuters, 10/31/11)

2011 Nov 1, In London former
Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt (27) and fast bowler Mohammad Asif
(28) were found guilty of involvement in a "spot-fixing" betting
scam during a match against England in August, 2010.
(AP, 11/1/11)

2011 Nov 2, UK shale gas firm
Cuadrilla Resources said exploration work triggered small tremors at
its drill site near Blackpool in northwest England earlier this
year, as activists scaled a rig protesting against its gas recovery
methods.
(Reuters, 11/2/11)

2011 Nov 3, GlaxoSmithKline Plc
said it has agreed in principle to settle several long-standing
disputes with the US government over the way it marketed and
developed drugs, at a cost of $3 billion (1 billion pound), which is
covered by existing provisions. It includes a Department of Justice
investigation into the company's controversial diabetes drug
Avandia, which has been linked to heart risks.
(Reuters, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Pakistan cricket
authorities said they were more determined to eradicate corruption
from the game after three of their key players were sentenced in
London to jail in a corruption case. Former Test captain Salman Butt
received 30 months, fast bowler Mohammad Asif received one year in
jail and Mohammad Aamer (19) was jailed for six months.
(AFP, 11/3/11)

2011 Nov 4, British Airways
owner IAG said it has agreed to buy Lufthansa's UK unit bmi in a bid
to squeeze more growth from its capacity constrained Heathrow hub
and expand services to emerging markets in Asia and Latin America.
(Reuters, 11/4/11)

2011 Nov 4, At least seven
people were killed and 51 injured, in one of the biggest British
motorway crashes in decades, with an inferno burning vehicles to
cinders on the M5 near Taunton. Police expected the death toll to
rise. Police said smoke from a fireworks display may be linked to
the 34-car pile-up.
(AFP, 11/5/11)(AP, 11/6/11)

2011 Nov 6, Miss Venezuela,
Ivian Sarcos, was crowned the 2011 winner of the Miss World beauty
pageant at a glittering final ceremony in London.
(AFP, 11/7/11)

2011 Nov 7, US electricals
retailer Best Buy Co Inc said it is buying its British partner,
Carphone Warehouse Group Plc, out of a fast-growing US mobile phone
joint venture for $1.3 billion (809.4 million pounds) and scrapping
plans for a chain of European megastores. Best Buy and Carphone
Warehouse said they are launching a mobile phone venture with Best
Buy's Chinese partner Five Star and are in talks to enter other
emerging markets together.
(Reuters, 11/7/11)

2011 Nov 8, A French court
ruled that the News of the World had violated the privacy of former
world motorsport chief Max Mosley when it published photographs of
him in a sadomasochistic orgy. The court fined Rupert Murdoch's News
Group, publisher of the now-defunct tabloid, 10,000 euros ($13,800)
and ordered it to pay 7,000 euros in damages for violating Mosley's
privacy, but said there was no defamation. Mosley (71) had already
won a case in a British court against News Group, after the News of
the World published a front-page story in March 2008 entitled "F1
boss has sick Nazi orgy with 5 hookers."
(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, Indonesian police
said they had arrested a British-born man accused of molesting nine
children following a tip-off from authorities in Britain. The
61-year-old man, who became an Indonesian citizen after changing his
nationality, was also allegedly involved in an online child
pornography network.
(AFP, 11/8/11)

2011 Nov 9, Thousands of
students marched through London in the latest display of anger
against the government's austerity measures, with large numbers of
police aiming to prevent a repeat of violence and rioting seen last
year.
(Reuters, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, An independent
report recommended the Ealing Abbey monastery should no longer be
allowed to run St. Benedict's School, a London Roman Catholic school
where pupils were physically and sexually abused over several
decades. Former St. Benedict's headmaster, the Rev. David Pearce,
was jailed in 2009 for abusing boys at the school over a 35-year
period.
(AP, 11/9/11)

2011 Nov 11, A British judge
sentenced Steven Cardwell, a British man, to at least 11 years in
prison for selling handguns smuggled into the country by Steven
Greenoe, a former US Marine.
(AP, 11/11/11)

2011 Nov 15, The City of London
Corporation said that it will resume legal action to clear an
anti-capitalist camp outside St Paul's Cathedral.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, Europe's top court
barred Britain from enacting a corporate tax reform in its tiny
territory of Gibraltar, ruling the scheme would amount to illegal
state aid for offshore companies.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, Nigerian airport
officials fined British Airways $135 million and Virgin Atlantic
$100 million amid a dispute over ticket prices. The airlines were
given 14 days to respond and were ordered to compensate passengers.
In 2012 a panel "cancelled the fines because at the time of the
offence between 2004 and 2006, there was no law to make them
culpable."
(AFP, 11/17/11)(AFP, 2/10/12)

2011 Nov 16, London officials
attached eviction notices to protest tents outside St. Paul's
Cathedral, asking the demonstrators to remove them within a day or
face legal action. More than 200 tents have been pitched outside the
iconic church since Oct. 15 in a protest against capitalist excess
inspired by New York's Occupy Wall Street, and the protesters said
they would resist attempts to move them.
(AP, 11/16/11)

2011 Nov 17, The Northern Rock
bank, nationalized at the height of the global financial crisis in
2008, was sold to Richard Branson's Virgin Money at a loss for
British taxpayers. The government agreed to sell Northern Rock to
online lender Virgin Money for £747 million ($1.18 billion, 872
million euros) in cash, although the final amount could rise to
about £1.0 billion.
(AFP, 11/17/11)

2011 Nov 18, Protesters facing
a legal battle over the right to stay camped outside St. Paul's
Cathedral said they have taken over a building owned by the UBS bank
in east London.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, In London Munir
Patel (22), the first person to be convicted under new bribery laws,
was jailed. He was given three years in prison for bribery offences
and six years for misconduct in a public office, with the sentences
to run concurrently. Patel had helped at least 53 individuals evade
prosecution for driving offences.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, India's Reliance
Industries and British giant BP announced the creation of an equal
joint venture firm to source and market natural gas in India.
(AFP, 11/18/11)

2011 Nov 20, Eighteen Church of
England bishops have signed an open letter published on Sunday
criticizing planned welfare reforms, in a rare intervention by the
religious establishment in politics. The bishops said that plans to
cap the amount any household can claim in benefits at £500 ($790,
580 euros) a week risked pushing vulnerable children into poverty.
(AFP, 11/20/11)

2011 Nov 21, Britainís PM David
Cameron and deputy PM Nick Clegg launched a scheme to support
first-time home buyers through a scheme enabling them to take out
95% mortgages. They will pledged an extra £50 million on top of the
£100 million from this year's budget towards an initiative to
refurbish empty homes.
(AFP, 11/21/11)

2011 Nov 22, A British court
ruled in favor of a group of more than 100 Iraqi civilians who have
demanded a new public inquiry into allegations of torture against
British soldiers. Some 128 Iraqis claim torture and inhuman and
degrading treatment by British soldiers and interrogators in Iraq
between March 2003 and December 2008.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, A British soldier
was reported killed by an explosion in Afghanistan while on patrol
in Central Helmand province.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, In Malaysia former
US president George W Bush and British ex-prime minister Tony Blair
were found guilty at a mock tribunal for committing "crimes against
peace" during the Iraq war. The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal,
part of an initiative by former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad,
a fierce critic of the Iraq war, found the former leaders guilty
after a four-day hearing.
(AFP, 11/22/11)

2011 Nov 24, Uganda ruled that
Heritage Oil must pay a $404 million tax bill, dismissing an appeal
by the UK-listed company. Heritage argues it is not liable to pay
tax in the country on the $1.45 billion sale last year of stakes in
two oil blocks in western Uganda to Anglo-Irish firm Tullow Oil.
Uganda in March allowed Tullow to sell two-thirds of its Uganda
interests to France's Total and China's CNOOC in a $2.9 billion
deal, after Tullow agreed to pay over $300 million as security
against Heritage's unpaid taxes.
(AFP, 11/24/11)

2011 Nov 25, Britainís Deputy
PM Nick Clegg unveiled a £1 billion youth contract to create
hundreds of thousands of work and training placements for jobless
youngsters.
(AFP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 25, The British
government published its new Cyber Security Strategy, setting out
how the UK will support economic prosperity, protect national
security and safeguard the publicís way of life by building a more
trusted and resilient digital environment.
(www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/protecting-and-promoting-uk-digital-world)

2011 Nov 26, Britainís Finance
Ministry said it plans to spend an extra 600 million pounds on
so-called "free schools" outside municipal control over the next
three years.
(Reuters, 11/26/11)

2011 Nov 27, The Swanland cargo
ship, with eight people on board, sank in the Irish Sea. It was
carrying thousands of tons of limestone and five people remain
missing off the coast of north Wales.
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 27, Ken Russell
(b.1927), British director of "Women in Love" (1969) and "The
Devils" (1971), died. His biggest commercial success came three
years later with "Tommy," an adaptation of The Who's rock opera.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 27, Iran's parliament
voted on expel the British ambassador in retaliation for fresh
Western sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program and warned that
other countries could also be punished. The bill now has to go to
the Guardians Council for approval.
(AFP, 11/27/11)

2011 Nov 28, Iran enacted
legislation to downgrade relations with Britain in retaliation for
intensified sanctions imposed last week by Western nations for their
suspected nuclear development program.
(SFC, 11/29/11, p.A2)

2011 Nov 29, Three-quarters of
British-grown oysters contain norovirus, a bug which causes diarrhea
and vomiting, according to new research published by the Food
Standards Agency (FSA).
(AFP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, Hard-line Iranian
students stormed British diplomatic sites in Tehran, bringing down
the Union Jack flag, burning an embassy vehicle and throwing
documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the seizing of the
US compound in 1979.
(AP, 11/29/11)

2011 Nov 30, Britain's foreign
secretary ordered all Iranian diplomats out of the UK within 48
hours following attacks on the British embassy and a residential
compound in Tehran. The ransacked embassy in Tehran was shuttered.
(AP, 11/30/11)(SFC, 12/1/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 30, Britainís biggest
carbon capture (CC) pilot plant began siphoning emissions from SSE's
490 megawatt coal-fired station at Ferrybridge, West Yorkshire, in
the latest effort to prove the technology on an industrial scale.
(Reuters, 11/30/11)

2011 Nov 30, Amid fears of a
eurozone collapse, central banks of the United States, the eurozone,
Britain, Japan, Canada and Switzerland said that they would cut the
cost of providing dollars to banks. The move pushed the DJIA up 490
points, its biggest gain since March 2009.
(AFP, 12/1/11)(SFC, 12/1/11, p.D1)

2011 Dec 1, Britainís navy
arrested 7 suspected pirates after a helicopter chase off the coast
of Somalia. A Spanish fishing vessel had come under attack by a
group of pirate vessels.
(SFC, 12/2/11, p.A2)

2011 Dec 2, Britainís PM David
Cameron held emergency talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy,
while France and Germany tried to drum up support for a new EU
treaty to enforce budget discipline.
(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, Royal Bank of
Scotland said it has sold its 918 tenanted pubs in Britain to Dutch
brewer Heineken for 422 million pounds, another step in its exit
from non-core businesses following a government bailout.
(Reuters, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, Christopher Logue
(85), English poet, died.
(Econ, 12/17/11, p.166)
2011 Dec 2, Spanish police said
they have arrested L. Morris (66), a British man, suspected of
raping his step-daughter when she was nine years old and years later
abusing her daughter as well. He had moved to Spain from Kent where
the alleged rapes took place.
(AFP, 12/2/11)

2011 Dec 3, The London-based
Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organization (IKWRO) reported
that more than 2,800 so-called honor attacks, punishments for
bringing shame on the family, were recorded by Britain's police in
2010.
(AFP, 12/3/11)

2011 Dec 4, Black Mirror, a
British science fiction television anthology series, was released.
It was created by Charlie Brooker and centered around dark and
satirical themes that examine modern society, particularly with
regard to the unanticipated consequences of new technologies.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mirror)(Econ, 2/11/17, SR p.6)

2011 Dec 7, Scotland Yard said
Ilir Nazmi Kumbaro (58), a former Albanian intelligence chief, is on
the run after failing to attend a Dec 1 extradition hearing in
Britain over charges of torture and kidnap in his homeland.
(AFP, 12/7/11)

2011 Dec 8, Britainís Defense
Secretary Philip Hammond announced that women will be allowed to
serve on British navy submarines, with female officers taking up
roles from late 2013.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, British ministers
ordered an urgent inquiry into England's exam system, after
undercover reporters recorded examiners advising teachers on what
questions were likely to come up.
(AFP, 12/8/11)

2011 Dec 9, The EU said that 26
of its 27 member countries are open to joining a new treaty tying
their finances together to solve the euro crisis. Only Britain
remained opposed, creating a deep rift in the union. Britain's
leaders argued that the revised treaty would threaten their national
sovereignty and damage London's financial services industry.
(AP, 12/9/11)

2011 Dec 10, British police
said the final number of victims of phone hacking by Rupert
Murdoch's News of the World will be around 800 people, far fewer
than originally thought.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, Bob Diamond, the
chief executive of Barclays bank, described in a published interview
how he has introduced a "no jerks rule" to weed out bankers he
considers too greedy or ostentatious. He also said pay for
investment bankers at Barclays will be lower this year but the
actual level has yet to be set.
(AFP, 12/10/11)(Reuters, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, It was reported
that British researchers have successfully treated 6 patients
suffering from the blood clotting disease known as hemophilia B, by
injecting them with the correct form of the defective gene, Factor
IX.
(SSFC, 12/11/11, p.A5)
2011 Dec 10, Police in London
arrested 143 people during an angry demonstration by up to 500
people against the re-election of President Joseph Kabila in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 12/10/11)

2011 Dec 13, European
Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said that a demand by Britain
for its financial services industry to be exempted from EU
regulation threatened to break up the single market.
(AFP, 12/13/11)

2011 Dec 18, Donald Neilson
(b.1936), one of Britain's most notorious serial killers, died. He
was known as the Black Panther, whose savage murder of Lesley
Whittle (17), a teenage heiress, repulsed the nation in 1975.
(AP,
12/19/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson)

2011 Dec 20, British treasury
minister Danny Alexander said the government has reached a tentative
deal on pension reform with most public sector unions, easing fears
of further strikes after a mass walkout over the issue last month.
(Reuters, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, The South American
trading bloc Mercosur -- which includes Brazil, Argentina and
Uruguay -- agreed to close its ports to ships flying the flag of the
British-controlled Falkland Islands.
(AFP, 12/23/11)

2011 Dec 21, Finnish officials
said they have found around 160 tons of explosives and 69
surface-to-air Patriot missiles on a cargo ship bearing a British
flag and ultimately destined for China. They didn't know the origin
of the missiles or who was supposed to receive them.
(AP, 12/21/11)

2011 Dec 26, In London
thousands of shoppers seeking post-Christmas bargains were delayed,
but not deterred, by a subway strike that shut down parts of the
network. Seydou Diarrassouba (18), was stabbed to death in front of
horrified shoppers during a fight between two groups of youths on
London's Oxford Street. 11 people were arrested the next day in
relation to the fatal stabbing. 3 more people were arrested on Dec
31.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AFP, 12/28/11)(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 26, A
British-registered ship, the M/S Thor Liberty, held in a Finnish
port after authorities discovered 69 surface-to-air missiles and 160
tons of explosives onboard, received permission to travel again, but
without those materials or its captain. The Patriot missiles were an
official shipment from Germany to South Korea. Finnish authorities
said the explosives were a legitimate shipment for China, but the
missiles lacked proper transit documents, and the explosives weren't
safely stored. On Jan 4 the Finnish government authorized the
transport.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 1/4/12)
2011 Dec 26, Anuj Bidve (23),
an Indian student, was gunned down at point blank range as he walked
with friends near their hotel in Salford, England. A boy (17) was
soon arrested on suspicion of murder after a warrant was executed in
the Salford area. 4 more people, including 2 teens, were soon
arrested in relation to the murder. On Dec 2 Kiaran Stapleton (20),
accused of the shooting, identified himself in court as ďPsycho
Stapleton." On July 26, 2012, Stapleton was convicted of murder. The
next day he was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 12/27/11)(Reuters, 12/26/11)(AP,
12/28/11)(AFP, 12/29/11)(AFP, 1/2/12)(AFP, 7/27/12)

2011 Dec 30, In Britain
administrator Deloitte said around 1,600 jobs are to go at shoe
retailer Barratts Priceless after attempts to find a buyer for the
concessions business failed. The Bradford-based Barratts collapsed
into administration earlier this month.
(Reuters, 12/30/11)

2011 Peter Ackroyd, London
writer, authored ďLondon Underground: The Secret History Beneath the
Streets."
(SSFC, 11/13/11, p.F8)
2011 British entrepreneur Sir
Richard Branson authored ďScrew Business As Usual."
(Econ, 12/3/11, p.104)
2011 Henry Hitchings authored
ďThe Language Wars: A History of Proper English."
(Econ, 3/12/11, p.100)
2011 A new British law allowed
police to collect DNA from offenders who had been convicted of
serious offenses before the DNA database was created in 1995.
Europe's top human rights court in 2008 struck down a British law
that allowed the government to store DNA and fingerprints from
people with no criminal record.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2011 Manchester, England, and
its nine metropolitan neighbors formed the greater Manchester
Combined Authority (GMCA).
(Econ, 9/27/14, p.56)
2011 Schmallenberg virus -
named after the German town where it was first detected - infected
sheep and cows on at least 2,600 farms in eight EU countries in
2011. In 2013 British farmers became the first in Europe to get a
new vaccine, made by Merck, against the virus.
(Reuters, 5/20/13)

2012 Jan 1, A British man (40)
is suspected of shooting dead three female members of his own family
before turning the gun on himself in Horden, County Durham, on a New
Year's Day rampage.
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Britain a
woman's body was found in a forest at Anmer at the vast rural estate
in Norfolk where Queen Elizabeth II and her family celebrated New
Year's. Forensic tests later identified the decomposed body as that
of Latvian Alisa Dmitrijeva (17), who was reported missing from her
home in eastern England in August.
(AP, 1/3/12)(AP, 1/8/12)

2012 Jan 4, British engineers
battled to restore electricity to thousands of homes after fierce
storms battered the UK, killing two men and causing widespread
travel chaos.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, British company
Everything Everywhere said it is launching a mobile virtual network
in Britain in partnership with telecoms giant China Telecom,
targeting Chinese residents and visitors.
(AFP, 1/4/12)

2012 Jan 6, In London Rebekah
Brooks (47), a long-serving personal assistant to the former Rupert
Murdoch, was arrested by police investigating phone hacking. She was
the 17th person to be arrested as part of Operation Weeting.
(Reuters, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 6, City of London
police said that Michael Brown, a fugitive multimillionaire
fraudster, has been detained in the Dominican Republic and that
British authorities would be seeking his return to the U.K. to serve
his sentence. Four former clients, including an ex-chairman of
Manchester United football club, had accused Brown of duping them
out of about 40 million pounds ($62 million). Brown was sentenced in
his absence to seven years in jail in 2008 after he was convicted of
fraud. On April 21 Brown was deported to Spain.
(AP, 1/6/12)(AFP, 4/22/12)
2012 Jan 6, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to push ahead with a new tax on financial
transactions, also known as a Tobin tax, even without France's EU
partners, in the face of stiff British resistance. The EU's
executive European Commission adopted plans last September for a
financial transaction tax under which stock and bond trades would be
taxed at the rate of 0.1 percent, with derivatives taxed at 0.01
percent.
(Reuters, 1/8/12)

2012 Jan 7, British developers
said they are planning to create a luxury holiday resort in rural
Wales designed specifically for Chinese tourists, with the aim of
bringing 20,000 to the country each year.
(AFP, 1/7/12)

2012 Jan 8, Britainís PM David
Cameron said he would veto a European-wide financial transaction tax
unless it was imposed globally, deepening a confrontation with
European Union heavyweights France and Germany. Cameron also
suggested that legislation to curb excessive executive pay,
including giving shareholders new voting powers, could be set out in
the spring.
(Reuters, 1/8/12)

2012 Jan 9, Britainís PM David
Cameron said Scotland should hold an independence referendum as
early as 2013, clashing with the SNP which does not want to hold a
one before autumn 2014 - the 700th anniversary of the Battle of
Bannockburn.
(Reuters, 2/16/12)
2012 Jan 9, Britons were urged
to avoid drinking alcohol for at least two days a week to protect
their health, a committee of MPs said in a report published today.
(Reuters, 1/9/12)
2012 Jan 9, Richard Branson's
Virgin Money opened its first bank branch in northeast England.
Northern Rock was sold in November to Virgin Money for £747 million
($1.18 billion, 872 million euros) in cash.
(AFP, 1/9/12)

2012 Jan 10, A British court
annulled the bankruptcy of Sean Quinn (64), once the Republic of
Ireland's richest man, in a victory for Irish Bank Resolution
Corporation which has been pursuing debts of up to 2.9 billion euros
(2.4 billion pounds). He had turned a rural quarrying operation into
a 4 billion euro fortune before running up a large stake in the now
failed Anglo Irish Bank. Quinn made the bankruptcy declaration in
November, taking advantage of British laws which would have allowed
him to go back into business in under a year.
(Reuters, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 10, The British
government approved the construction of a high-speed rail network
linking London with cities in central and northern England from 2026
at a cost of almost £33 billion.
(AFP, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 10, The British
government set out conditions under which Scotland would be allowed
to hold a referendum - limiting it to a single yes-or-no question
and rejecting a second question on greater powers of devolution.
(Reuters, 2/16/12)

2012 Jan 11, In England the
body of Oxford Professor Steven Rawlings (50) was found at the home
of his friend Dr Devinder Sivia (49) after a neighbor called police
to report an incident. Sivia, a maths lecturer, was arrested on
suspicion of murder.
(Reuters, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 11, In Birmingham,
England, Avtar and Carole Kolar were found dead at their home in
Handsworth Wood having suffered blunt force trauma to the head in an
apparent bungled burglary. On Jan 16 Rimvydas Liorancas (37) from
Lithuania was arrested for the murders. On Jan 28 Liorancas was
found hanged at Woodhill prison in Milton Keynes.
(AFP, 1/31/12)

2012 Jan 12, A Turkish court
files charges against Britainís Duchess of York for secretly filming
orphanages in the country in 2008 for a British TV program.
(SFC, 1/13/12, p.A2)

2012 Jan 13, British PM David
Cameron held talks with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh.
(AFP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 13, Christopher Tappin
(64), a retired British businessman, lost a High Court battle
against extradition to the United States on charges of conspiring to
sell batteries for surface-to-air missiles to Iran. Tappin has said
he believed he was exporting batteries for the car industry in the
Netherlands.
(AFP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 13, A British court
ruled that Richard O'Dwyer (23), a student at Sheffield Hallam
University, can be extradited to the US to answer copyright
infringement allegations. He had created a website allowing people
to watch films and TV shows for free. After O'Dwyer was arrested in
London in November 2010, he admitted to police that he owned
TVShack.net and TVShack.cc and earned about £15,000 (18,000 euros,
$23,000) a month from online advertising.
(AFP, 1/14/12)
2012 Jan 13, British store
owner Peter Avis (66) was killed at his home above his Collis and
Son shop in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. In February suspect, Pytor
Malaniuk, was detained during a police raid in the eastern Polish
city of Biala Podlaska.
(AFP, 2/21/12)

2012 Jan 15, Britain's foreign
secretary William Hague said that European nations will intensify
pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, but insisted the West
wasn't pressing for military action.
(AP, 1/15/12)

2012 Jan 16, Britain's deputy
prime minister Nick Clegg accused Israel of carrying out "deliberate
vandalism" by continuing to build settlements on land the
Palestinians hope will form part of a future state.
(AP, 1/16/12)

2012 Jan 17, Britain announced
defense cuts. Around 400 of Nepalese Gurkha fighters will lose their
jobs as part of the cuts, which will see more than 4,000 posts
slashed from the armed forces in total.
(AFP, 1/17/12)
2012 Jan 17, Britain said it
has signed deals with China to research stem cells and smart grids,
after Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne held 2-day talks
with officials in Beijing aimed at attracting investment.
(AFP, 1/17/12)
2012 Jan 17, The European Court
of Human Rights blocked Britain from extraditing Abu Qatada (aka
Omar Mohammed Othman), an alleged top aide of Osama bin Laden to
Jordan, saying evidence against him may have been obtained through
torture.
(AFP, 1/17/12)

2012 Jan 18, Britainís High
Court in London approved a bid by authorities to evict
anti-capitalist protesters from outside St Paul's Cathedral. Dozens
of protesters from the Occupy London movement have been camping
outside St Paul's since October.
(Reuters, 1/18/12)

2012 Jan 19, Britainís PM David
Cameron said bonuses in the financial services sector have "got out
of control" in recent years, adding cash payments at state-backed
banks would again be limited to 2,000 pounds.
(Reuters, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 19, In London a $6
billion (3.8 billion pound) lawsuit between two of Russia's
best-known tycoons ended after a four-month High Court hearing.
Former Kremlin insider Boris Berezovsky (65) claimed he was extorted
into handing the crown jewel of his business empire to Roman
Abramovich (45), the billionaire owner of Chelsea football club. A
ruling was expected at the end of March or in early April.
(AP, 1/20/12)

2012 Jan 20, British
authorities revoked the license of Press TV, the Iranian state
broadcaster's English-language outlet, saying the channel had
breached a string of regulations.
(AFP, 1/20/12)

2012 Jan 21, Anti-capitalist
protesters said they have taken over a large building in the City of
London financial district. Occupy London publicly repossessed Roman
House, an abandoned nine-storey office building in the Barbican.
They left the premises later in the day after a request from
contractors employed by the building's owners.
(AFP, 1/21/12)(AFP, 1/22/12)

2012 Jan 22, British author
Salman Rushdie accused Indian police of making up an underworld plot
to assassinate him that forced him to pull out of a literary
festival this weekend.
(AFP, 1/22/12)

2012 Jan 23, A British court
heard that Turkish-Cypriot business magnate Asil Nadir (70), one of
Britain's most infamous fugitives, stole almost £150 million from
his Polly Peck business empire. Nadir fled to northern Cyprus in
1993, months before he was due to stand trial for fraud, but
dramatically returned to Britain in August 2010 and was immediately
arrested.
(AFP, 1/23/12)
2012 Jan 23, British adventurer
Felicity Aston (34) finished her Antarctic crossing, becoming the
first woman to ski across the icy continent alone.
(AP, 1/23/12)
2012 Jan 23, Martin Smith (46),
a former TV psychic from North Shields, was found dead at HMP
Manchester, formerly Strangeways Prison. Smith was jailed for 16
years in March 2011 after being found guilty of a string of offences
including rape, attempted rape and indecent assault. His wife Lianne
Smith (43) faced murder charges for the deaths of their 2 children
in a hotel in Spain in 2010.
(AFP, 1/25/12)

2012 Jan 24, The Coryton
refinery in Essex, one of Britain's largest oil refineries halted
sales, casting doubt over the future of 1,000 jobs and putting
petrol supplies at risk. Petroplus, its Swiss owner, said it would
file for insolvency. It had bought the refinery from BP in 2007.
(AFP, 1/24/12)

2012 Jan 25, Scotlandís first
minister, Alex Salmond, announced the wording of a referendum on the
nationís independence, scheduled for the autumn of 2014, in a
consultation document. His wording kept open the option maximum
self-government.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.57)

2012 Jan 27, A paralyzed
British man who wants to die won the first round in his legal
battle, when the High Court ruled his lawyers won't be prosecuted if
they seek out experts to help him commit suicide.
(AP, 1/27/12)

2012 Jan 28, British police
searched the offices of Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers after
arresting a police officer and four current and former staff of his
tabloid The Sun as part of an investigation into police bribery by
journalists.
(AP, 1/28/12)

2012 Jan 31, Britain stripped
Fred Goodwin, the former head of Royal Bank of Scotland, of his
knighthood. He had steered one of Britain's largest banks to near
collapse with the catastrophic buyout of a Dutch bank, a disaster
that helped bring on the global financial crisis.
(Reuters, 2/1/12)

2012 Feb 1, Four British
Islamists - Mohammed Chowdhury (21), Shah Rahman (28), and brothers
Gurukanth Desai (30) and Abdul Miah (25), inspired by a former
Al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaqi, admitted in court to plotting to
blow up the London Stock Exchange in 2010.
(AFP, 2/1/12)

2012 Feb 3, Britainís Energy
Secretary Chris Huhne resigned after learning he would face criminal
charges for allegedly lying to police, a fall from grace that could
tweak the dynamics of the coalition government and weaken its
environmental agenda. Huhne's troubles stemmed from an allegation
that after committing a speeding offence in 2003 in Essex, east of
London, he asked his then wife Vicky Pryce to take the blame so he
would not lose his driving license.
(Reuters, 2/3/12)

2012 Feb 5, Britainís Heathrow
Airport cut around half of the 1,300 flights scheduled for today
after snow and freezing temperatures hit much of England a day
earlier.
(Reuters, 2/5/12)
2012 Feb 5, Mark Thompson,
director-general of the BBC, said Iranian authorities are
increasingly arresting and threatening the families of BBC
journalists to force them to quit its Persian news service.
(Reuters, 2/5/12)

2012 Feb 7, Argentina's Pres.
Cristina Fernandez accused Britain of "militarizing the South
Atlantic" and said she would complain to the UN, as tension rises
ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands war.
(Reuters, 2/8/12)

2012 Feb 8, The Trident Gang
Crime Command, a new specialist Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)
unit tackling London gangs, carried out hundreds of raids exactly
six months on from the riots that hit the capital, arresting nearly
160 people.
(AFP, 2/8/12)

2012 Feb 9, A British judge
sent 9 British Muslims men to prison with sentences of 5-16 years
for plots to bomb the London Stock Exchange in 2010.
(SFC, 2/10/12, p.A2)

2012 Feb 10, Mayor Boris
Johnson said London will be the first city in England to test
electronic monitoring to force persistent alcohol offenders to stop
drinking. The trial program was expected to start later this year.
Electronic devices which continuously monitor alcohol are used in
several US states. Offenders who break their no-drink order can be
sent to jail.
(AP, 2/10/12)
2012 Feb 10, Judge Duncan
Ouseley ruled in London's High Court: "The saying of prayers as part
of the formal meeting of a council is not lawful under section 111
of the Local Government Act 1972, and there is no statutory power
permitting the practice to continue." The legal challenge was
launched in July 2010 after the National Secular Society was
contacted by Clive Bone, a non-believer who was then a councilor in
Bideford.
(AFP, 2/10/12)
2012 Feb 10, Argentina accused
Britain of sending nuclear weapons to the disputed Falkland islands,
while UN leader Ban Ki-moon appealed to both sides to avoid an
"escalation" of their sovereignty battle.
(AFP, 2/10/12)

2012 Feb 11, Britain's
biggest-selling tabloid newspaper, The Sun, was fighting to contain
the damage after five of its employees were arrested in an inquiry
into the alleged payment of bribes to police and other officials. A
39-year-old female employee at Britain's defense ministry, a
36-year-old male member of the armed forces and a 39-year-old
serving police officer with Surrey Police, were also arrested in an
early morning raid.
(AP, 2/11/12)

2012 Feb 12, Black-and-white
turned to gold as silent movie "The Artist" won seven BAFTA awards
including best film at a ceremony in London, raising expectations of
a strong showing at the Academy Awards. Meryl Streep clinched the
leading actress prize for her portrayal of former British PM
Margaret Thatcher both as a politician at the height of her power
and as a frail elderly lady suffering from dementia, in "The Iron
Lady."
(Reuters, 2/13/12)
2012 Feb 12, The 54th Grammy
Awards were held in Los Angeles. British singer Adele won every
award she was up for including Album of the year for ď21" and Record
of the year for ďRolling in the Deep."
(SFC, 2/13/12, p.D1)

2012 Feb 14, British Rev. John
Suddards' body was discovered by workmen at the vicarage in
Thornbury, about 125 miles (200 km) west of London. Police said he
was stabbed multiple times in his home. On Feb 19 Kent Police said
that suspect Stephen Farrow (47) was detained overnight in
Folkestone, near the major port town of Dover. Farrow was also
suspected in the murder of Betty Yates, a retired teacher, on
January 2. The body of a young man was also found at the house where
Farrow was arrested.
(AP, 2/19/12)(AFP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 14, Italian
prosecutors asked the country's highest criminal court to reinstate
the murder convictions of American Amanda Knox and her former
boyfriend in the brutal slaying of a British student.
(AP, 2/14/12)

2012 Feb 15, Official data
showed that Britain's unemployment rate hit a 16-month peak in the
three months to December, while the number of people claiming
jobless benefits struck the highest total in two years.
(AFP, 2/15/12)

2012 Feb 16, Britainís PM David
Cameron, on a trip to meet first minister Alex Salmond in Edinburgh,
made an impassioned plea to the Scots to remain within the United
Kingdom, offering instead more devolved power.
(Reuters, 2/16/12)

2012 Feb 17, In France British
PM David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy put recent
disputes behind them to unveil a nuclear power deal and renew their
own sometimes shaky political alliance. Cameron said the British
engineering firm Rolls-Royce will secure a £400 million (481 million
euro, $632 million) share in the work to build Britain's first
French-pioneered EPR reactor at Hinkley Point in southern England.
(AFP, 2/17/12)
2012 Feb 17, France and Britain
pledged to help the Syrian opposition in its struggle against Bashar
al-Assad's regime but said conditions were not right for a foreign
intervention as in Libya. Pres. Sarkozy urged anti-Assad forces to
unite and be better organized.
(AFP, 2/17/12)

2012 Feb 19, In northern France
a coach taking 47 British holidaymakers home from a school skiing
trip rolled into a ditch, killing a teacher and injuring 23 people.
(AFP, 2/19/12)

2012 Feb 20, The British
government staged a "drought summit" to decide what action to take
as low rainfall in recent months means large areas of Britain will
face drought this year.
(AFP, 2/20/12)

2012 Feb 21, Britainís Deputy
PM Nick Clegg unveiled a £126 million fund to focus on the "ticking
time bomb" of young people who are not in employment, education or
training.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 21, The Brit Awards
cut off singer Adele's speech as she accepted the main prize of the
ceremony, a move which prompted the singer to raise her middle
finger at the crowd. The organizers apologized in a statement after
the event.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 21, A senior Tata
executive said Indiaís Tata Motors has selected a partner to build
an assembly plant for its luxury British car brands Jaguar and Land
Rover in China.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 21, Libyaís leader
Mustafa Abdul-Jalil acknowledged that his government is powerless to
control militias that are refusing to lay down their arms after
ousting Moammar Khadafy. The Swehli militia of Misrata, which also
operates in Tripoli, seized Nicholas Davies and Gareth
Montgomery-Johnson while they were reportedly filming in the
capital. The two British journalists, working for Iran's
English-Language Press TV, were being held for illegal entry and
possible espionage. On March 18 deputy interior minister Omar
al-Khadrawi said the men had committed no crime and were free to
leave Libya.
(SFC, 2/22/12,
p.A4)(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17260958)(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Feb 21, Malaysia's Home
Ministry said in a statement that bookstores were no longer allowed
to sell "Where did I come from?" by British author Peter Mayle
pending a review.
(AFP, 2/21/12)

2012 Feb 22, Occupy London
protesters braced for eviction after a court ruled that local
authorities can remove their four-month-old camp from outside St.
Paul's Cathedral.
(AP, 2/22/12)

2012 Feb 24, A British legal
filing indicated that fugitive oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov (48),
accused of embezzling at least $5.0 billion (3.2 billion pounds)
from his former Kazakh bank BTA, is believed to have fled Britain on
a coach bound for France to escape a jail sentence for contempt of
court.
(Reuters, 2/24/12)
2012 Feb 24, Christopher Tappin
(65), a retired British businessman, arrived in the United States
after failing to overturn an extradition order. He was accused of
plotting to sell missile components to Iran.
(AP, 2/24/12)

2012 Feb 26, Rupert Murdoch's
Sun tabloid hit British news stands, replacing the defunct News of
the World with a pledge to meet high ethical standards after a
"challenging" chapter in its history. Inside, an editorial titled "A
new Sun rises today" said the newspaper was appointing a so-called
Readers' Champion to deal with complaints and correct errors, while
also vowing that its journalists would be ethical.
(AFP, 2/26/12)

2012 Feb 27, James Ibori (49),
former governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state, pleaded guilty in
a British court to charges of money-laundering, conspiring to
defraud and obtaining a money transfer by fraud.
(AP, 2/27/12)

2012 Feb 29, Britain accused
Argentina of pursuing a "policy of confrontation" over the disputed
Falkland Islands after the country's industry minister called for a
block on British imports.
(AFP, 2/29/12)
2012 Feb 29, In Britain, the
world's oldest running nuclear reactor shut down at
Oldbury-on-Severn after 44 years of operation, starting the
countdown to 2025, by when a new nuclear station is expected to open
on a site just a few hundred meters away.
(Reuters, 2/29/12)

2012 Feb 29, Britain withdrew
its diplomatic staff from Syria because of a growing risk to their
safety.
(AFP, 3/1/12)

2012 Mar 1, Britainís Financial
Services Authority (FSA) regulator said 3 people have been arrested
and are being held in custody in relation to an insider-dealing
investigation.
(Reuters, 3/1/12)

2012 Mar 6, The limbless and
headless torso of Gemma McCluskie (29) was found when a member of
the public reported a suspicious object floating close to a market
in Hackney, east London. She was a former actress in the BBC's top
soap opera "EastEnders" (2001) and had gone missing on March 1. On
March 10 Tony McCluskie (35) was charged with killing his sister.
(AFP, 3/9/12)(AFP, 3/10/12)

2012 Mar 7, In Afghanistan 6
British soldiers were killed when a massive explosion hit their
armored vehicle, taking the British toll in the war against Taliban
insurgents to more than 400. In Uruzgan province 9 policemen were
killed by Taliban insurgents after a checkpoint guard allowed them
to enter a sleeping area.
(AFP, 3/7/12)(SFC, 3/9/12, p.A3)

2012 Mar 8, In Nigeria a
British-Nigerian operation involving 100 troops, military trucks and
a helicopter attempted to rescue a pair of British and Italian
hostages. At least two hostage-takers were killed in the operation
in Sokoto. Italian engineer Franco Lamolinara (48) and his British
colleague Chris McManus (28) were shot by their captors. Italyís PM
Monti was only informed by Britainís PM Cameron once the operation
was under way. The two hostages were kidnapped by heavily armed men
who stormed their apartment in Kebbi state in May 2011. Nigerian
authorities detained five Islamist militants suspected of
involvement in the kidnapping.
(AFP, 3/9/12)(AP, 3/9/12)Reuters, 3/10/12)

2012 Mar 9, The Libyan
transitional government won possession of a plush London mansion
belonging to a son of the late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi. The
house, in the exclusive Hampstead Garden Suburb district of north
London, was worth in excess of £10 million ($15.7 million, 12
million euros).
(AFP, 3/9/12)

2012 Mar 13, Some 3,000 people
gathered in Liverpool, England, for the annual Global
Entrepreneurship Congress.
(Econ, 3/17/12, p.79)
2012 Mar 13, British chip
designer ARM unveiled what it said was the world's most
energy-efficient microprocessor design that will help devices
ranging from fridges to medical equipment to parking meters to
communicate with other devices.
(Reuters, 3/13/12)

2012 Mar 14, British PM David
Cameron his wife Samantha arrived at the White House for an official
visit mixing talks on global threats with the formal flourishes of a
state dinner.
(AFP, 3/14/12)
2012 Mar 14, Britainís Office
for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement that the number of
unemployed people climbed by 28,000 over the period, the smallest
increase for almost one year as the unemployment rate hit the
highest level for almost 17 years.
(AFP, 3/14/12)
2012 Mar 14, Britain launched a
website and Facebook page for Iranians, harnessing the power of
social media to try to evade Iranian censorship and take its message
directly to the people.
(Reuters, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 14, British scientists
warned that research into debilitating diseases is under threat from
a refusal by ferry operators and airlines to transport laboratory
animals into the country.
(AFP, 3/14/12)

2012 Mar 15, Britain jailed 2
men who had posed as good Samaritans to steal from an injured
Malaysian student, Asyraf Haziq Rosli (21), an infamous incident
caught on camera during riots in London last year. Reece Donovan
(22) was sentenced to a total of five years in jail for robbery,
violent disorder and burglary offences. John Kafunda (22) was
sentenced to three and a half years for robbery and nine months for
violent disorder.
(AFP, 3/15/12)

2012 Mar 16, Britainís
Environment Agency said Indonesia has asked Britain to take back
1,800 tons of waste after inspectors found liquid and illegal mixed
waste in containers marked as "scrap metal."
(AFP, 3/16/12)

2012 Mar 20, Russian banker
German Gorbuntsov (45) was shot outside his home in east London and
was put into a medically induced coma. Hew was days away from giving
evidence to an investigation into the attempted murder of a former
business associate. His lawyer believed the attack was connected to
an assassination attempt on Gorbuntsov's partner and co-owner of
Konvers Group, Alexander Antonov, in 2009. A bank he owned in
Moldova, Universalbank, was closed down in February and he was
wanted there for financial crimes. The Kommersant business daily
wrote that Gorbuntsov said he himself was a victim of a raider
attack that caused him to lose his stake of more than 70 percent in
Universalbank.
(AFP, 3/24/12)(Reuters, 3/25/12)

2012 Mar 21, The British
government unveiled its latest annual budget. Chancellor of the
Exchequer George Osborne cut personal income taxes but aimed new
levies on the wealthy, taking a political gamble while pledging to
stick to his government's tough austerity plan. He cut a 50% income
tax band for the highest earners to 45%, from next year on. Osborne
also raised the income tax threshold by more than previously
announced to 9,205 pounds ($14,300), taking more poorly paid people
out of the tax net.
(Reuters, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 21, British hostage
Judith Tebbutt (57), captured in Kenya on Sep 11, 2011, ago by
gunmen who killed her husband, was released in central Somalia and
flown out to Nairobi.
(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 21, European Union
anti-trust regulators approved British government plans to provide
pension relief and slash the debt of Royal Mail Group as part of its
privatization.
(AFP, 3/21/12)

2012 Mar 22, Britainís ruling
Conservatives were pilloried as a party pandering to millionaires
and slapping a "Granny Tax" on pensioners in a budget they defended
as a spur to economic growth.
(Reuters, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 22, Deaths from liver
disease have risen 25 percent in England in less than a decade,
mainly due to increased alcohol consumption, a study revealed.
Alcohol-related liver disease accounted for over a third (37
percent) of the deaths, according to the National End of Life Care
Intelligence Network report.
(AFP, 3/22/12)

2012 Mar 23, In Britain a group
of 35 Nigerian villages sued Royal Dutch Shell PLC claiming that the
companyís slow response to two spills in 2008 left their delta
region soaked in crude oil.
(SFC, 3/24/12, p.A2)

2012 Mar 25, British Tory
treasurer Peter Cruddas, a senior member of David Cameron's
Conservative party, resigned after he apparently offered access to
the British premier in return for party donations of £250,000.
(AFP, 3/25/12)

2012 Mar 26, Britainís PM David
Cameron bowed to pressure to disclose his own contacts with wealthy
donors after a newspaper sting caught a top fundraiser for his party
offering meetings with the premier in return for big contributions.
(Reuters, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Britainís
Financial Services Authority handed Coutts, the private bank which
counts the queen as a client, an £8.75-million fine for failing to
ensure it was not handling laundered money.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, British video
games retailer GAME collapsed into administration, placing more than
5,500 jobs at risk, becoming the latest victim of tough economic
conditions. GAME's international divisions were operating as normal.
(AFP, 3/26/12)

2012 Mar 27, Britainís Health
and Socal Care Act 2012 received Royal Assent. It increased
competition, gave the NHS greater autonomy, and put more decisions
about care in the hands of local doctors.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_and_Social_Care_Act_2012)(Econ,
3/29/14, p.60)
2012 Mar 27, British Royal Mail
announced that stamp prices will shoot up to record highs of 60p for
first class and 50p for second class effective April 30.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 27, A cloud of
explosive natural gas boiling out of the North Sea from a leak at
Total's abandoned Elgin platform forced wider evacuations off the
Scottish coast as the French firm warned it may take six months to
halt the flow.
(Reuters, 3/27/12)

2012 Apr 3, James Murdoch,
under pressure over his role in Britain's tabloid phone hacking
scandal, stepped down as chairman of British Sky Broadcasting PLC
(BSkyB).
(AP, 4/3/12)

2012 Apr 4, British officials
said a new batch of counterfeit cancer drug Avastin discovered in
the United States was bought in Turkey and shipped through Britain
by a UK-based business. Avastin, made by Roche, is a complex
injectable biotech drug with annual sales of $6 billion.
(Reuters, 4/4/12)

2012 Apr 5, Britain broadcaster
Sky News admitted it had authorized a journalist to access emails
belonging to John Darwin and his wife Anne, who had faked his death
in a canoe accident before moving to Panama to start a new life with
the insurance payout.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
2012 Apr 5, Around 20 million
Britons were banned from using garden hoses, after one of the driest
two-year periods on record.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
2012 Apr 5, Jaguar Land Rover,
owned by India's Tata Motors, announced that it plans to build its
new Jaguar F-Type sports car in Britain.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
2012 Apr 5, In England a
Chinese student (24) died after he was knocked down by an unmarked
British police car in Birmingham.
(AFP, 4/6/12)

2012 Apr 7, Britain's Home
Office interior ministry said it was investigating reports that
hacking group Anonymous had attacked its website over the
government's plans to boost Internet surveillance.
(AFP, 4/7/12)

2012 Apr 8, In England the body
of Jamie Dack (22) was found by Southampton firefighters called to
tackle a blaze at the Empress Road industrial estate. Four men were
soon charged with murder, false imprisonment and conspiracy to rob.
(AFP, 4/11/12)

2012 Apr 13, A British judge
sentenced computer hacker James Jeffery (27) to two years and eight
months in jail for breaking into the website of Britain's biggest
abortion provider and stealing the personal details of thousands of
women.
(AP, 4/13/12)
2012 Apr 13, In Myanmar British
PM David Cameron and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi issued a
joint call for the suspension of sanctions against the former pariah
state after landmark talks. Cameron also met reformist President
Thein Sein as he became the first Western leader in decades to visit
the country.
(AFP, 4/13/12)

2012 Apr 16, Half of England
was officially in drought after the Environment Agency declared
another 17 counties short of water, and warned the situation may
continue until the end of the year.
(AFP, 4/16/12)

2012 Apr 17, British
authorities arrested radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada (51), who is
accused of ties to late Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, as they
resumed efforts to deport him to Jordan. The UK government has been
trying to extradite the Jordanian since 2005 arguing that he is a
threat to national security. He was convicted in Jordan in absentia
of involvement in terror attacks in 1998, and faces a retrial on his
return.
(AFP, 4/17/12)
2012 Apr 17, UK authorities
gave approval to drill for shale gas onshore after a temporary ban
on the controversial extraction technique known as hydraulic
fracturing, or fracking. Energy experts believed Britain may have
enough offshore shale gas to catapult it into the top ranks of
global producers.
(Reuters, 4/17/12)
2012 Apr 17, In London James
Ibori, former Nigerian state governor (1997-2007), was sentenced to
13 years in prison over a fraud involving $250 million of state
funds.
(AFP, 4/17/12)

2012 Apr 18, The British
government promised to release 8,800 files from 37 former colonies
as an official revue concluded that thousands of documents detailing
shameful acts in the final years of the British Empire were
systematically destroyed.
(SSFC, 4/22/12, p.A4)
2012 Apr 18, At Edinburgh High
Court a man was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his
ex-lover in a hearing which was the first of its kind in Britain to
be filmed by television cameras. David Gilroy (49) must spend a
minimum of 18 years behind bars for killing his colleague Suzanne
Pilley (38) two years ago, after she ended their affair.
(AFP, 4/18/12)

2012 Apr 20, British diplomat
George Fergusson (56) was mugged as he walked through Hammersmith in
West London. He lost sight in his left eye following the attack. He
is due to take up the post of governor in the British overseas
territory of Bermuda.
(AFP, 4/22/12)
2012 Apr 20, British guitarist
Bert Weedon (91) died. He inspired a generation to pick up the
string instrument. The Beatles' George Harrison, John Lennon as well
as Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Queen guitarist Brian May and Pete
Townshend of The Who were all among those who started out with
Weedon's books. His first "Play In A Day" book was published in
1957.
(AFP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 20, Switzerland said
it has revised a tax pact agreed with Britain last year and will
offer it a higher rate of withholding tax, after Germany earlier
this month succeeded in obtaining more favorable terms in a similar
deal with the Swiss government.
(Reuters, 4/20/12)

2012 Apr 22, Kenya's Wilson
Kipsang and Mary Keitany triumphed in the London Marathon. Claire
Squires (30) collapsed and died near the end of her charity run in
the race.
(AFP, 4/22/12)(SFC, 4/25/12, p.A2)

2012 Apr 23, Ferrovial-owned
BAA said it had agreed to sell Edinburgh airport to Global
Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for 807 million pounds ($1.3 billion),
adding the Scottish hub to an investment portfolio that includes
London's Gatwick and City airports.
(Reuters, 4/23/12)

2012 Apr 24, British police
arrested five men on suspicion of terror offences in Luton, in
pre-planned raids. The men were arrested "on suspicion of the
commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism" in the
Bury Park area, which has been home to a large Muslim Pakistani
community since the 1970s. On April 30 four men Zahid Iqbal (30),
Mohammed Sharfaraz Ahmed (24), Umar Arshad (23), and Syed Hussain
(21) were charged with intention to commit acts of terror or
assisting others to commit such acts.
(AFP, 4/24/12)(AFP, 4/30/12)
2012 Apr 24, In London
Gianfranco Techegne (49) was arrested at the Broadway Post Office by
detectives from Scotland Yard's extradition unit. He has been wanted
by Italian police since 1982 in connection with the armed robbery of
a car rental agency in Naples during which a young police officer
was fatally wounded.
(AP, 4/28/12)

2012 Apr 29, British police
arrested James Allen (36), of Lothian Road, Middlesbrough, for the
deaths of Colin Dunford (81) from Middlesbrough, and Julie Davison
(50) from Whitby, North Yorkshire. Their bodies were discovered last
week.
(AFP, 5/2/12)

2012 Apr 30, A British police
report said British police discovered more than 20 cannabis farms
and factories in the UK every day last year, seizing drugs worth up
to £100 million.
(AFP, 4/30/12)

2012 May 1, British police said
one woman and six men were arrested at four separate residences in
London, Coventry and Cardiff, Wales, on suspicion of financing
terrorism in Somalia by smuggling khat leaf, which can produce a
mild high, into the United States. It has been illegal in the US
since 1993, but is still legal in many countries worldwide. It has
been illegal in the US since 1993, but is still legal in many
countries worldwide.
(AP, 5/1/12)
2012 May 1, The Scotland Act
2012, an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, received Royal
Assent. It set out amendments to the Scotland Act 1998 with the aim
of devolving further powers to Scotland in accordance with the
recommendations of the Calman Commission.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_Act_2012)

2012 May 2, Britainís national
police agency closed the website of the Serious Organized Crime
Agency (SOCA) following an attack by hackers. It was a distributed
denial of service (DDoS) attack, where a website's host computers
are bombarded with requests for information, making them crash.
(AFP, 5/3/12)

2012 May 3, British insurer
Aviva became the latest victim of investor activism as shareholders
rebelled over boardroom pay amid under-performance in the poor
economic climate. More than half of Avivaís shareholders rejected
annual executive pay awards, delivering a major snub to chief
executive Andrew Moss at the group's annual meeting.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 3, China's Bright Food
said it is buying 60% of Weetabix from British owner Lion Capital in
a deal valuing the breakfast cereal giant at £1.2 billion (1.48
billion euros, $1.94 billion).
(AFP, 5/3/12)

2012 May 4, British PM David
Cameron's Conservative Party took an electoral bruising, suffering
widespread losses in local elections as voters punished the leader
for biting austerity measures and a stalled economy. Deputy PM Nick
Clegg's Liberal Democrats suffered similar woes. In London Cameron's
Conservative Party colleague Boris Johnson swept to a second
four-year term as the British capital's mayor.
(AP, 5/4/12)

2012 May 5, More than 40,000
spectators watched as a cascade of white balloons was released to
open London's Olympic stadium, before the Games begin on July 27.
(AFP, 5/5/12)

2012 May 6, Sky News Arabia, a
joint venture between an Abu Dhabi royal and the British broadcaster
BSkyB, launched a 24-hour Arabic-language news channel with a pledge
to be impartial in a region where government influence over media is
endemic.
(Reuters, 5/8/12)

2012 May 9, Britainís Queen
Elizabeth unveiled the governmentís agenda in her annual QueenĎs
Speech.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.A2)
2012 May 9, A group of London
investment bankers won their High Court battle to receive 50 million
euros ($65 million) in unpaid bonuses. The bankers claimed that
Commerzbank had reneged on a deal to pay bonuses promised to them by
Dresdner before the takeover in 2008.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, Nine men in
northwest England were sentenced to jail terms for luring girls as
young as 13 into sexual encounters using alcohol and drugs. The men,
aged between 22 and 59, were all of Pakistani or Afghan origin.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, British police in
Newcastle arrested a suspected spokesman (17) for Team Poison, a
hacking group that has claimed responsibility for a series of
high-profile cyber-attacks.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, British drugmaker
GlaxoSmithKline said it has gone hostile over its $2.6 billion (2.0
billion-euro) takeover bid for US research partner Human Genome
Sciences Inc.
(AFP, 5/9/12)

2012 May 10, Thousands of
off-duty police officers took to the streets in London in a rare
display of collective anger against government austerity measures,
joining a mass protest by public sector workers including
immigration officials, healthcare workers and prison officers.
(Reuters, 5/10/12)

2012 May 11, British police
arrested two people on suspicion of murder after five children died
in a house fire in the central English city of Derby. A 6th child
died soon after at Birmingham Children's Hospital. The suspects were
released on may with no charges. Investigators later said the fire
was sparked by petrol poured through the letterbox. On May 29
parents Mick Philpott (55) and his wife Mairead (31) were arrested
on suspicion of murder. In 2013 the parents and a family friend were
convicted of manslaughter. On April 4 the Philpots and Paul Mosley
were sentenced to 17 years in prison.
(AFP, 5/11/12)(AFP, 5/14/12)(AFP, 5/16/12)(AFP,
5/29/12)(AP, 4/4/13)
2012 May 11, British police
arrested 2 local men, aged 52 and 31, over explosives offences in
raids on two locations in a quiet residential suburb of Cheltenham,
which is also home to Britain's national electronic surveillance
center.
(AFP, 5/12/12)

2012 May 15, British
prosecutors accused former Rupert Murdoch aide Rebekah Brooks (43)
and five others of obstructing justice in the first criminal charges
from the News of the World phone hacking scandal.
(AFP, 5/15/12)
2012 May 15, French energy
giant Total said it has begun the operation to plug a gas leak under
one of its North Sea platforms by pumping it full of mud at high
pressure.
(AFP, 5/15/12)

2012 May 16, French energy
giant Total said it had plugged a gas leak under the North Sea Elgin
platform that cost the firm hundreds of millions of dollars and
threatened to trigger a major explosion off the coast of Scotland.
(AFP, 5/16/12)

2012 May 17, US carmaker
General Motors said it has opted to build the next generation of its
Astra compact in Britain, leaving its plant in Bochum, Germany in
danger of closure. GM said it would invest $200 million (126 million
pounds) in its Ellesmere Port plant.
(Reuters, 5/17/12)

2013 May 18, French police
arrested Julian Stevenson (48), a British unemployed man after the
bodies of his daughter (5) and son (10) were found with their
throats slit at his apartment in a suburb of Lyon. Stevenson hanged
himself in prison on Dec 30.
(Reuters, 5/19/13)(AFP, 12/31/13)

2012 May 20, Robin Gibb
(b.1949), one of the 3 Bee Geesí brothers, died in London of cancer.
He sang lead vocals on the Bee Gees' first British number one,
"Massachusetts", in 1967, before they switched styles to disco in
the 1970s.
(AFP, 5/21/12)

2012 May 22, The first woman to
command a major Royal Navy warship took up her post. Commander Sarah
West (40) took control of the frigate HMS Portland. West has served
in the Royal Navy for 16 years.
(AP, 5/22/12)
2012 May 22, The art collection
of the late German-born playboy Gunter Sachs, featuring works
celebrating his obsession with his former wife Brigitte Bardot,
fetched over $56 million at a London sale.
(AFP, 5/23/12)

2012 May 23, Family history
website ancestry.co.uk published online for the first time the wills
of famous Britons such as Winston Churchill, among those of six
million other people.
(AFP, 5/23/12)
2012 May 23, Saudi Arabiaís SPA
state news said Saudi Arabia has signed a $3-billion deal with
Britain to buy Hawk trainer jets for the Gulf kingdom's air force.
The majority of the Hawks will be made at BAE's plants in Samlesbury
and Warton in Lancashire, northwest England.
(AFP, 5/23/12)(Reuters, 5/23/12)

2012 May 30, Britainís Supreme
Court ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited
to Sweden, but put his deportation on hold to give his lawyers a
final chance to reopen the case.
(AFP, 5/30/12)

2012 Jun 2, Britainís Queen
Elizabeth II arrived at Epsom racecourse to kick off four days of
celebrations for her diamond jubilee.
(AFP, 6/2/12)

2012 Jun 4, Argentina declared
British oil exploration off the Falklands "illegal" and immediately
set about suing five companies for pursuing activities around the
contested islands.
(AFP, 6/4/12)

2012 Jun 5, Cheering crowds
thronged the streets of London for the grand finale to four days of
festivities marking the Queen's Diamond Jubilee attended by millions
across Britain.
(Reuters, 6/5/12)

2012 Jun 7, Japanís coastguard
plucked British adventurer Sarah Outen to safety after she got into
trouble in the northern Pacific during her attempt to row solo
across the ocean. A patrol boat was also heading towards fellow
Briton Charlie Martell, who was separately attempting to row solo
across the Pacific when he was also caught in bad weather.
(AFP, 6/8/12)

2012 Jun 8, In Britain 6 men
were handed jail sentences for running a website, Confidential
Access, that earned millions of pounds by selling fake documents and
coaching fraudsters in how to conduct successful scams. Two
masterminds ran the site from villas in Alicante in Spain while
associates in Britain created fake documents including bank
statements, pay slips, driving licenses and bills.
(AFP, 6/9/12)

2012 Jun 11, British workers
from Coryton oil refinery marched on a fuel terminal in the
southeast of the country and disrupted the supply of fuel heading to
petrol stations to protest against the plant's closure. Coryton is
currently being wound down as crude supplies run out, and 900 jobs
were threatened.
(Reuters, 6/11/12)(Reuters, 6/14/12)

2012 Jun 14, Bank of England
Governor Mervyn King said the country would launch a scheme to
provide cheap long-term funding to banks to encourage them to lend
to businesses and consumers. It will flood Britain's banking system
with more than 100 billion pounds, seeking to pump credit through an
economy struggling to escape recession under the "black cloud" of
the euro zone crisis.
(Reuters, 6/15/12)
2012 Jun 14, Britainís Ministry
of Defense said a British soldier has been killed in a grenade
attack in southern Afghanistan. This brought to 418 the number of
British troops killed since operations in Afghanistan began in
October 2001.
(AFP, 6/14/12)

2012 Jun 19, WikiLeaks chief
Julian Assange made a run for the Ecuadorean Embassy in London,
seeking asylum in a long shot move that, if successful, would place
him in a small, friendly South American country rather than in
Sweden facing questioning about alleged sex crimes.
(AP, 6/20/12)
2012 Jun 19, US-based Walgreens
said it was spending $6.7 billion (£4.3 billion) to take a
45-percent stake in British-based Alliance Boots to create the
world's largest retail pharmacy chain.
(AFP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 19, A Russian ship
allegedly carrying refurbished attack helicopters and missiles
destined for Syria has stopped off the Scottish coast after its
British insurer, Standard Club, withdrew cover for the MV Alaed. On
June 24 the ship was re-flagged as a Russian vessel.
(AFP, 6/19/12)(SFC, 7/13/12, p.A4)

2012 Jun 21, Doctors in
Britain's state-funded health service took industrial action for the
first time in 37 years in a dispute over changes to their pensions,
cancelling thousands of patients' non-urgent appointments and
operations. The Department of Health claimed the next day that only
8% of NHS doctors took part in the industrial action.
(Reuters, 6/21/12)(AFP, 6/22/12)

2012 Jun 26, British officials
said Big Ben, parliament's famous clock tower, is to be renamed
Elizabeth Tower in honor of the queen's diamond jubilee.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 26, Dan Penteado (40)
a presenter on the BBC program Rogue Traders pleaded guilty to
illegally obtaining housing and council tax benefit worth over
£24,000. The offences dated back to 2007 and Penteado repeated the
fraud in subsequent years up to 2011.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 26, British police
loaded almost 3,000 images onto a smartphone App and invited the
public to help them identify people suspected of taking part in the
Aug 6, 2011, Tottenham riots.
(AFP, 6/26/12)

2012 Jun 27, Barclays bank
revealed that it will pay fines of £290 million ($452 million, 362
million euros) to British and US authorities over a probe into rate
manipulation, and top staff will take a bonus cut.
(AFP, 6/27/12)
2012 Jun 27, John Massey (64)
one of Britain's longest-serving prisoners, escaped from Pentonville
prison in Islington, North London. He was serving a life sentence
for the murder of a man at a Hackney pub in 1975.
(AFP, 6/28/12)

2012 Jun 28, A British security
official said 2 Muslim converts have been arrested in London on
suspicion of terror offenses. It remained unclear whether the men
were arrested as part of an alleged plot.
(AP, 6/28/12)

2012 Jun 29, Britain's major
banks, including HSBC and Barclays, were ordered to pay up for
misleading businesses over interest rate insurance, in a second blow
to the image of the City. Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King
described an interest rate rigging scandal engulfing British banks
as "deceitful manipulation," calling for fundamental changes in the
culture of the banking industry.
(AFP, 6/29/12)(Reuters, 6/29/12)

2012 Jun 30, British police
stopped a car on the M1 highway in South Yorkshire and impounded it
for not having insurance. Firearms, offensive weapons and other
material were later found hidden in the vehicle, which prompted
police to trace and arrest the driver, passenger and 5 other
suspects.
(AP, 7/6/12)

2012 Jul 2, Barclays chairman
Marcus Agius resigned, paying the price for the "devastating" damage
to the bank caused by the rigging of key global interest rates which
has sullied London's image as a financial center. Agius, who has
chaired the bank for six years, will remain in his post until a
successor was found.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 2, British drugmaker
GlaxoSmithKline was socked with $3 billion in fines by US
authorities over charges it marketed drugs for unauthorized uses,
held back safety data, and cheated the government's Medicaid
program.
(AFP, 7/2/12)

2012 Jul 3, Barclays Plc Chief
Executive Bob Diamond quit under fire from politicians and
regulators, the highest-profile casualty of an interest rate-rigging
scandal spanning more than a dozen big banks across the world.
(Reuters, 7/3/12)
2012 Jul 3, Two British Tornado
GR4s from Royal Air Force Lossiemouth, each piloted by a two member
crew, went down in the Moray Firth in northeast Scotland. A
helicopter airlifted two airmen to a hospital in Inverness while
efforts to find the missing pair were called off due to poor
visibility and bad weather.
(AFP, 7/4/12)

2012 Jul 5, The British
government gave details of major army cuts which will see it lose
20,000 regular soldiers by 2020, taking force levels to their lowest
since the early 19th century.
(AFP, 7/5/12)
2012 Jul 5, British police in
London arrested 6 people over an alleged plot to launch a terrorist
attack. A 7th person, female (22) was arrested on July 7. A woman
(30) among the 6 arrested was reported released without charge on
July 8.
(AP, 7/7/12)(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 5, Europe's tallest
skyscraper the Shard was inaugurated in London by Qatari PM Hamad
bin Jassem al-Thani, whose country has funded it, and Queen
Elizabeth II's son Prince Andrew. The name was coined by its Italian
architect Renzo Piano.
(AFP, 7/5/12)
2012 Jul 5, Capital Economics,
a British-based consultancy, scooped the Wolfson Economics Prize for
coming up with the best method for an "orderly exit" of one or more
member countries wishing to leave the European Monetary Union.
(AFP, 7/5/12)
2012 Jul 5, London's iconic but
derelict Battersea Power Station was acquired by a Malaysian
consortium for £400 million ($620 million, 501 million euros).
(AFP, 7/5/12)
2012 Jul 5, Colin Marshall
(78), who guided British Airways on its transition from state
ownership to privatization, died. He was appointment as chief
executive of British Airways in 1983 and was given a knighthood
after the airline was privatized in 1987.
(AFP, 7/11/12)

2012 Jul 6, The British
government hoisted the rainbow flag symbolizing gay pride over one
of its ministries for the first time.
(AFP, 7/6/12)

2012 Jul 9, Boeing Co. clinched
the first big deal of this year's Farnborough Airshow with a firm
order from Air Lease Corp. for 75 of its redesigned 737 aircraft
worth $7.2 billion.
(AP, 7/9/12)
2012 Jul 9, A British judge
ruled that Samsung's Galaxy tablet was not "cool" enough to be
confused with Apple's iPad giving South Korea's Samsung a patent
battle win against US rival Apple.
(AFP, 7/9/12)
2012 Jul 9, British police
found Eva Rausing (48) dead at her multimillion-pound (dollar)
London home. Initial post-mortem examinations failed to establish a
formal cause of her death. Her husband Hans Kristian Rausing (49) is
an heir to the Tetra Pak fortune his father built in Sweden as a
globally successful manufacturer of laminated cardboard drink
containers. British media later reported that she had been dead for
several days. On August 1 Rausing pleaded guilty to preventing her
proper burial and was given a 10-month suspended jail sentence. On
Dec 14 a coroner said she died from cocaine abuse.
(AFP, 7/11/12)(SFC, 7/18/12, p.A2)(AP,
8/1/12)(AP, 12/14/12)

2012 Jul 10, Barclayís chairman
Marcus Agius said former chief executive Bob Diamond will give up
bonuses worth £20 million after resigning over a rate-rigging
scandal. Agius also said Diamond would still receive a final pay-off
of around £2 million.
(AFP, 7/10/12)
2012 Jul 10, Boeing Co.
revealed a further large order for its remodeled short-haul 737
aircraft, a $9.2 billion with GE Capital Aviation Services. Rival
Airbus announced its first billion-dollar order at this year's
Farnborough Airshow.
(AP, 7/10/12)

2012 Jul 11, British police
investigating corruption in the media (Operation Elveden) arrested
two more journalists, both from rival tabloids to Rupert Murdoch's
now-closed News of the World: Justin Penrose, a reporter for the
Sunday Mirror tabloid, and Tom Savage, deputy news editor of the
Daily Star Sunday.
(AFP, 7/11/12)
2012 Jul 11, The British
government and the Gates Foundation organized a summit on family
planning. The last big UN conference on family planning took place
in 1994.
(Econ, 7/14/12, p.53)

2012 Jul 12, The BBC World
Service transmitted its final bulletin from Bush House in London,
ending 71 years of radio broadcasts from the building that kept
millions informed across the globe. Since March, the service has
gradually moved to the new east wing attached to Broadcasting House
in Portland Place, two km away.
(AFP, 7/12/12)
2012 Jul 12, Airbus, a
subsidiary of EADS, said it booked a potential $6.35 billion worth
of orders. The four deals, if completed, take Airbus' total by the
fourth day of the UK airshow to $16.9 billion for a total of 115
aircraft.
(AFP, 7/12/12)

2012 Jul 13, The British
government launched an £80-billion initiative to provide the banking
sector with cheap funding to stimulate lending and boost growth.
(AFP, 7/13/12)

2012 Jul 14, It was announced
that former British PM Gordon Brown is to become a special global
education envoy to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
(AFP, 7/14/12)

2012 Jul 16, Jon Lord (b.1941),
keyboardist for the British Deep Purple rock band, died in London.
His work included ďConcerto for Group and Orchestra" (1969).
(SFC, 7/18/12, p.C4)

2012 Jul 19, The British
government warned unions that they risked public anger if planned
industrial actions went ahead. The Aslef rail union announced that
450 of its members in central England would walk out between August
6 and 8 in a dispute over pensions. The decision coincided with a
move by border officials to strike on July 26, the day before the
start of the Olympic Games.
(Reuters, 7/19/12)
2012 Jul 19, Britainís
state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group agreed to sell 632 branches at a
loss to The Co-operative Group after an EU competition ruling.
(AFP, 7/19/12)
2012 Jul 19, Scotland Yard
officer Constable Simon Harwood (45) was cleared by a jury of
killing newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson (47), who became caught up in
the G20 protests in London On April 1, 2009.
(AFP, 7/19/12)

2012 Jul 20, Sir Alastair
Burnet (84), British veteran television newscaster, died. He was
ITN's head anchor from 1967 to 1991, except between 1974 and 1976,
when he anchored the BBC's coverage of the two 1974 general
elections and edited the Daily Express. He edited The Economist from
1965-1974.
(AFP, 7/20/12)(Econ, 7/28/12, p.82)

2012 Jul 22, A British man
attempting to swim the Channel died off the French coast.
(AFP, 7/22/12)

2012 Jul 24, British
prosecutors brought criminal charges against 8 of the most prominent
figures in the phone-hacking scandal by one or Rupert Murdockís
tabloid newspapers. They included Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks.
(SFC, 7/25/12, p.A5)

2012 Jul 25, Britainís the
Department of Health said it is to extend its seasonal flu
vaccination program to all British children, free of charge,
becoming the first country in the world to do so.
(Reuters, 7/25/12)
2012 Jul 25, Official figures
showed Britain is suffering a far deeper recession than thought, in
a development that is likely to increase the pressure on the
government to ease up on its tough austerity approach.
(AP, 7/25/12)
2012 Jul 25, The Olympics
kicked off with a women's football match between Britain and New
Zealand in Cardiff. The match in the Welsh capital comes two days
before the July 27 opening ceremony at the main London stadium but
marks the competitive sporting debut for the Games.
(Reuters, 7/25/12)
2012 Jul 25, Mexican regulators
said they have fined HSBC $28 million for failing to prevent money
laundering through accounts at the bank. Mexico's National
Securities and Banking Commission said the Mexico subsidiary of the
London-based bank has paid the fines. Officials said HSBC in 2007
and 2008 sent about $7 billion in cash from Mexico to the US.
(AP, 7/25/12)

2012 Jul 26, The Murdoch media
empire unexpectedly jettisoned the News of the World after a public
backlash over the illegal guerrilla tactics it used to expose the
rich, the famous and the royal and remain Britain's best-selling
Sunday newspaper. James Murdoch, son of the media magnate, said:
"This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World."
(AP, 7/26/12)

2012 Jul 27, Britainís Queen
Elizabeth II declared the London Olympics open after playing a cameo
role in a dizzying ceremony designed to highlight the grandeur and
eccentricities of the nation that invented modern sport. More than
10,000 athletes from 204 countries will compete in 26 sports over 17
days of competition in the only city to have staged the modern Games
three times.
(Reuters, 7/28/12)

2012 Jul 30, HSBC PLC, Europeís
biggest bank, apologized to shareholders as it disclosed a $700
million charge to cover the cost of US penalties for lapses
including its failure to enforce money-laundering controls in
Mexico.
(AP, 7/30/12)
2012 Jul 30, In London
Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte, claimed as an "adopted Brit," became the
youngest winner of the Olympic event at 15 years and 133 days when
she won the 100m breaststroke final over American world champion
Rebecca Soni. She became Lithuania's first Olympic swimming
champion.
(AFP, 8/1/12)

2012 Jul, In London the
377-foot ArcelorMittal Orbit, a torch-like structure in red steel,
rose over the new Olympic Stadium.
(SSFC, 7/22/12, p.N3)

2012 Aug 1, A court in London
jailed identical twin brothers for three years after they admitted a
charge of fundraising for acts of terrorism abroad. Mohammed Shabir
Ali and Mohammed Shafiq Ali (25) were part of a "network of support"
for their older brother while he was at a terrorist training camp in
Somalia.
(AFP, 8/1/12)
2012 Aug 1, Eight badminton
players were dramatically disqualified from Olympic competition
after a scandal over "throwing" matches left the sport in uproar.
Four pairs in the women's doubles competition, one from China, one
from Indonesia and two from South Korea, were barred after being hit
by disciplinary charges.
(AFP, 8/1/12)

2012 Aug 2, A court in London
jailed an Ethiopian diplomat for trying to smuggle a large stash of
cannabis through London's Heathrow Airport. Amelework Wondemagegne
(36), an official at the Ethiopian embassy in Washington, had tried
to claim diplomatic immunity when she was caught at the airport in
April with 56 kilograms (123 pounds) of cannabis.
(AFP, 8/2/12)
2012 Aug 2, John Keegan
(b.1934), a leading British scholar on battles, died. His books
included ďThe Face of Battle" (1976).
(SFC, 8/4/12, p.C4)

2012 Aug 6, Britainís Deputy PM
Nick Clegg announced that the government has dropped plans to
introduce a mainly-elected upper house of parliament, in a serious
blow to the ruling coalition.
(AFP, 8/6/12)
2012 Aug 6, Bernard Lovell
(98), founder of Britainís Jodrell Bank radio telescope, died. Sir
Lovell was knighted in 1961.
(Econ, 8/18/12, p.82)
2012 Aug 6, New York State
Department of Financial Services alleged that Standard Chartered PLC
schemed with the Iranian government to launder $250 billion from
2001 to 2007.
(AP, 8/7/12)

2012 Aug 7, Jessica Harper
(50), former security chief of Lloyds Banking Group, pleaded guilty
at Southwark Crown Court in London to taking the money from her
employers using false invoices over a four-year period from 2007 to
2011 and then laundering the cash.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, Shares in Standard
Chartered PLC dropped 22% sharply as investors reacted to US charges
that the bank was involved in laundering money for Iran.
(AP, 8/7/12)(Econ, 8/18/12, p.64)

2012 Aug 8, Britain arrested
Spaniard Kemen Uranga Artola (43) in London suspected of being a
member of the Basque separatist group ETA. Media reports said Uranga
is suspected of the murder of a judge, Jose Maria Lidon, who was
killed by an ETA group in 2001.
(Reuters, 8/8/12)
2012 Aug 8, In South Africa
Mziwamadoda Qwabe (27), one of the men accused of killing Swedish
honeymooner Anni Dewani, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25
years in prison in a plea deal. South Africa was still awaiting the
extradition of the victim's British husband Shrien Dewani, who is
accused of masterminding the November 2010 killing in a murder set
up to look like a botched carjacking. On Aug 15 Xolile Mngeni, named
by Qwabe as the gunman, denied charges of murder, kidnapping,
robbery and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
(AFP, 8/8/12)(AFP, 8/15/12)

2012 Aug 10, Britain's
government, meanwhile, said it was offering 5 million pounds (US$7.8
million) to Syria's rebel forces to pay for communications equipment
and medical supplies in an effort to bolster ties with the Syrian
opposition. World powers were set to name veteran Algerian diplomat
Lakhdar Brahimi (78) as their new envoy to seek a peaceful and
politically workable end to a 17-month uprising that has cost more
than 21,000 lives.
(AP, 8/10/12)(AFP, 8/10/12)
2012 Aug 10, Manchester United
PLC raised some $233 million as its shares sold for $14 on the NYSE.
The IPO represented 10% of the Glazer familyís ownership.
(SFC, 8/11/12, p.D2)

2012 Aug 11, The International
Boxing Association (AIBA) said it has begun legal action after the
BBC repeated the previous evening that boxing medals could be bought
at London 2012. The BBC had repeated an allegation first made in a
Newsnight documentary last September that around $10m had been paid
from Azerbaijan to boxing authorities in return for two golds.
(AFP, 8/11/12)
2012 Aug 11, British police
investigating the disappearance of Tia Sharp (12) were holding her
grandmother, Christine Sharp (46), and two others after a body was
found in south London. The girl was said to have gone missing after
leaving the house to visit a nearby shopping center on August 3.
Stuart Hazell (37), the grandmother's boyfriend, was charged with
murder.
(AFP, 8/11/12)(AFP, 8/12/12)

2012 Aug 12, Marathon man
Stephen Kiprotich delivered Uganda's second ever Olympics gold
medal, celebrating victory in the shadow of Buckingham Palace as the
curtain slowly dropped on the 2012 Games. Ugandaís last gold medal
came 40 years ago when 400m hurdler John Akii-Bua struck gold at the
Munich Games. The closing ceremony was billed as a diverse "Symphony
of British Music."
(AFP, 8/12/12)

2012 Aug 13, British energy
group BP said that it has agreed to sell its Carson refinery in
California to US peer Tesoro Corporation for $2.5 billion (2.02
billion euros) as part of its ongoing restructuring. BP also said
that Eagle Rock Energy Partners is paying $227.5 million in cash for
the Sunray and Hemphill gas processing plants in Texas.
(AFP, 8/13/12)
2012 Aug 13, Germanyís Munich
Re, the world's largest reinsurer, said it has acquired three wind
parks in Britain as part of a 2.5-billion-euro ($3.0-billion)
investment in renewable energies.
(AFP, 8/13/12)

2012 Aug 14, Britainís Office
for National Statistics said consumer price inflation inched up to
2.6 percent from 2.4 percent in June as prices for airfares soared
and clothing retailers reined in seasonal discounts.
(Reuters, 8/14/12)
2012 Aug 14, Britainís Standard
Chartered settled allegations that it helped Iranian clients dodge
US sanctions, announcing a fine of $340 million from a New York
banking watchdog. Standard Chartered also agreed to house a
government anti-laundering monitor for two years at its New York
branch.
(AFP, 8/15/12)

2012 Aug 16, British High Court
judges dismissed a legal plea by Tony Nicklinson (58) for the right
to die, unanimously ruling that it would be wrong to depart from a
precedent that equates voluntary euthanasia with murder. Nicklinson
had locked-in syndrome after suffering a stroke on a business trip
to Athens in 2005. He died at his home in Melksham on Aug 22 after
contracting pneumonia.
(AFP, 8/22/12)
2012 Aug 16, It was reported
that Britainís town of Bristol has re-scheduled the launch of the
Bristol pound, usable only with member businesses in the city in
southwest England, to Sep 19. The Bristol pound will not be legal
tender and must be exchanged through the Bristol Credit Union, with
a three percent charge for conversion back to sterling.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 16, Ecuador granted
political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, setting up a
diplomatic confrontation with Britain, which angrily insisted it
would extradite him to Sweden.
(AFP, 8/16/12)

2012 Aug 20, In London Turkish
Cypriot tycoon Asil Nadir (71) was found guilty of theft in relation
to the collapse of his Polly Peck business empire, one of a series
of debacles that focused public attention on the corporate greed of
1980s Britain. On Aug 23 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(AP, 8/20/12)(AFP, 8/23/12)

2012 Aug 24, Rupert Murdoch's
British tabloid The Sun published nude photographs of Prince Harry
(27), claiming it defied royal orders not to print them in defense
of press freedom.
(AFP, 8/24/12)

2012 Aug 26, Britainís Scotland
Yard arrested 96 people during the annual Children's Day of the
Notting Hill Carnival, mainly for drug and public order offences as
well as robbery and assault.
(AFP, 8/28/12)

2012 Aug 29, The British
government stripped London Metropolitan University of its right to
sponsor visas for overseas students over alleged failings in its
procedures, leaving thousands of students facing possible
deportation.
(AFP, 8/30/12)
2012 Aug 29, Queen Elizabeth II
officially opened the London Paralympic Games at a showpiece
ceremony involving more than 3,000 volunteer and professional
performers.
(AFP, 8/30/12)

2012 Aug 30, The first day of
competition at the London Paralympics got under way.
(AFP, 8/30/12)

2012 Aug 31, In London
self-exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky lost his multibillion-dollar
legal battle against fellow Russian mogul Roman Abramovich after a
British judge ruled that he didn't tell the truth in the clash over
vast oil wealth.
(AP, 8/31/12)

2012 Sep 5, In the French Alps
the bodies of 3 British vacationers and French cyclist, Sylvain
Mollier (45), were found slain near the village of Chevaline. A
4-year-old girl was found alive among the bodies. Her sister (7) was
beaten and shot but survived. Their BMW car was registered to
Baghdad-born Saad al-Hilli (b.1962), who had lived in Britain since
at least 2002. His family had been in France since August. A Swedish
passport and Iraqi passport were also found at the scene. A family
feud was suspected. On June 24, 2013, the brother of Saad al-Hilli
was arrested after investigators gathered evidence that the siblings
were fighting over their father's inheritance.
(AP, 9/6/12)(AP, 9/7/12)(AP, 6/24/13)

2012 Sep 6, Qatarís sovereign
wealth fund, a major stakeholder in Xstrata, agreed to a Glencore
offer of 3.05 shares of Glencore per Xstrata share. The deal was
brokered by former British PM Tony Blair.
(Economist, 9/15/12, p.61)

2012 Sep 9, In England a man
fell to the ground in the Mortlake neighborhood of West London when
a jet passing overhead lowered its landing gear as it neared the
runway at Heathrow Airport. The apparent stowaway had no
identification papers, just some currency from Angola. The man was
later identified as Jose Matada of Mozambique.
(AP, 12/10/12)(SFC, 4/12/13, p.A2)

2012 Sep 12, British privacy
activists, citing findings gathered via freedom-of-information
requests, identified King Ecgbert as one of more than 200 high
schools across Britain that have installed surveillance cameras in
bathrooms or locker rooms.
(AP, 9/12/12)

2012 Sep 14, A French magazine
published photos of Prince William's wife Kate sunbathing topless at
a private house in southern France, prompting a strong condemnation
from the royal family.
(AP, 9/14/12)

2012 Sep 18, Two unarmed
policewomen were killed in a shooting in Manchester. Police
constables Fiona Bone (32) and Nicola Hughes (23) were gunned down
in a hail of bullets after responding to a hoax call about a
burglary in the northern English city of Manchester. The attack was
by Dale Cregan (29), one of Britainís most wanted fugitives, and was
likely to reignite a long-running debate in Britain over whether
officers should carry guns.
(Reuters, 9/18/12)(Reuters, 9/19/12)

2012 Sep 20, British gangster
Charlie Richardson (b.1934), one of the most feared underworld
figures of 1960s London, died. He had fought a vicious turf war with
the more famous Kray brothers. Known as the "Torture Gang," his
associates were said to nail victims to the floor, cut off their
toes with bolt cutters and give them electric shocks in a bath full
of water. He was the subject of a 2004 feature film, "Charlie." His
2nd autobiography, ďThe last Gangster: My Final Confession," was
published in 2014.
(Reuters, 9/20/12)(Econ, 3/8/14, p.58)

2012 Sep 24, The British
government said it would allocate 1 billion pounds towards a new
state-backed business bank designed to expand lending to smaller
firms.
(Reuters, 9/24/12)

2012 Sep 26, Radical Islamist
cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri (54) won a delay in his extradition from
Britain to the United States, days after he lost an appeal to the
European Court of Human Rights.
(Reuters, 9/27/12)

2012 Sep 27, In London Russian
billionaires Oleg Deripaska and Michael Cherney reached an 11th-hour
settlement in a dispute over a billion dollar slice of aluminium
giant RUSAL, shortly before they were due to give evidence in a
drawn-out London court case.
(Reuters, 9/27/12)
2012 Sep 27, Kareem Serageldin,
a former Credit Suisse executive facing extradition to the U.S. on
fraud charges for his handling of mortgage-based securities during
the financial crisis, was freed on bail after an appearance before a
British court. He was slated to receive more than $7 million in
compensation in 2007 before the company learned about the alleged
fraud and withheld $5.2 million of his pay.
(AP, 9/27/12)

2012 Sep 28, Britainís PM David
Cameron told reporters that his country would be exercising its
right to opt out of a mass of European policing and crime measures,
including the European Arrest Warrant (EAW).
(Economist, 10/6/12, p.68)

2012 Oct 1, Eric Hobsbawm
(b.1917), renowned British left-wing historian, died. His writing
influenced students and politicians across Europe. He won critical
acclaim with a four-volume history of Europe in the 19th and 20th
centuries. His bestselling memoirs charted the pivotal moments in
modern European history through which he lived.
(AP, 10/1/12)(Economist, 10/6/12, p.110)

2012 Oct 3, British ministers
froze three more rail franchise competitions after the Department
for Transport (DfT) said that "completely unacceptable" flaws had
been uncovered in its handling of bids to run the West Coast Main
Line, a jewel in the crown of the rail network linking London and
Scotland.
(AP, 10/3/12)
2012 Oct 3, In Britain a
documentary screened on ITV showing interviews with several people
who claimed they had been abused as children by Jimmy Savile, a
popular BBC presenter who died in 2011.
(Econ, 10/27/12, p.58)

2012 Oct 4, London listed
steelmaker Evraz, part-owned by tycoon Roman Abramovich, is to gain
control of one of Russia's largest coal mines after acquiring a half
stake in Cyprus-based investment vehicle Corber Enterprises for an
undisclosed sum.
(AP, 10/4/12)

2012 Oct 5, Britain's High
Court ruled that three elderly Kenyans tortured during a rebellion
against British colonial rule can proceed with compensation claims
against the British government.
(AP, 10/5/12)
2012 Oct 5, Radical preacher
Abu Hamza al-Masri (54) and four other terror suspects were
extradited from the U.K. after Britain's High Court ruled they had
no more grounds for appeal in their years long battles to avoid
facing charges in the United States. Al-Masri was wanted in the US
on charges that included conspiring to set up a terrorist training
camp in Oregon and helping abduct 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998.
(AP, 10/5/12)(SFC, 10/6/12, p.A2)

2012 Oct 8, Scientists from
Britain and Japan shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine. John Gurdon
(79) of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, Britain, and Shinya
Yamanaka (50) of Kyoto University in Japan, discovered ways to
create tissue that would act like embryonic cells, without the need
to harvest embryos. Dr. Yamanaka called his cells ďinduced
pluripotent stem cells".
(AP, 10/8/12)(Econ, 2/18/17, p.19)
2012 Oct 8, A British judge
ordered supporters of Julian Assange to pay thousands of pounds they
promised for his bail because the WikiLeaks founder violated the
conditions for his release.
(AP, 10/8/12)
2012 Oct 8, Eric Lomax
(b.1919), a former British prisoner of war whose moving tale of
wartime torture and forgiveness, died in Berwick-upon-Tweed. His
celebrated memoir, "The Railway Man" (1996), was being turned into a
film.
(AP, 10/9/12)

2012 Oct 10, A deal to create a
European defense and aerospace giant to rival Boeing Co. collapsed
when Britain's BAE Systems and EADS NV called off their merger
discussions because of conflicting interests between the British,
French and German governments.
(AP, 10/10/12)

2012 Oct 11, Britain asked
Jordan to pardon radical Islamist preacher Abu Qatada (51) because
evidence used to convict him of terrorism there was obtained through
torture. The Palestinian-born Jordanian cleric, whose real name is
Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, has been convicted in absentia in
Jordan over bomb plots and faces retrial if extradited.
(AP, 10/11/12)

2012 Oct 11, British military
police arrested seven Royal Marines on suspicion of murder. The
arrests relate to an incident in Afghanistan in 2011. The incident
followed an engagement with an insurgent and there were no civilians
involved.
(Reuters, 10/11/12)

2012 Oct 12, British lawyers
said Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky has agreed to pay 35
million pounds towards the legal fees of Chelsea Football Club owner
Roman Abramovich after failing in a $6 billion (3.7 billion pounds)
London court battle with his former protťgť.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, London police
arrested Maksim Bakiyev (34), the fugitive son of Kyrgyzstan's
deposed president, on a US extradition warrant on suspicion of
fraud. released on bail until his next court hearing on Dec 7.
(AP, 10/13/12)
2012 Oct 12, It was reported
that Britain planned to shoot badgers for six consecutive weeks in
each of the next four years in parts of Gloucestershire and the
neighboring county of Somerset. The aim was to reduce the badger
population by 70 percent. At issue was how to stem the spread of
bovine tuberculosis, which many farmers blamed on roaming badgers.
(Reuters, 10/12/12)

2012 Oct 14, Britain's Ministry
of Defense said five Royal Marines have been charged with murder
over a death in Afghanistan last year. They are the first British
troops to be charged with murder in the country since deployments
began in 2001.
(AP, 10/14/12)
2012 Oct 14, Nicholas Mockford
(60), a British national and executive for ExxonMobil living in
Belgium, was shot dead as he left an Italian restaurant in
Neder-over-Heembeek. Helmeted assailants escaping on a motorcycle.
(AP, 10/26/12)

2012 Oct 15, Scotland set up a
historic independence referendum after PM Alex Salmond signed an
agreement with Britain's PM David Cameron finalizing arrangements
for a 2014 vote which could lead to the demise of its
3-centuries-old union with England.
(Reuters, 10/15/12)
2012 Oct 15, Malala Yousufzai
(14), the Pakistani schoolgirl shot by Taliban gunmen for advocating
education for girls, was flown in an air ambulance, provided by the
United Arab Emirates, to the United Kingdom for medical treatment.
(AP, 10/15/12)

2012 Oct 16, Britain's Home
Secretary Theresa May said computer hacker Gary McKinnon (46),
accused by the United States of causing more than $700,000 damage to
US military systems, will not be extradited because of the high risk
he could kill himself. McKinnon, arrested in 2005, has Asperger's
Syndrome and has said he was looking for evidence of UFOs. In
December British authorities opted not to charge McKinnon.
(AP, 10/16/12)(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Oct 16, British writer
Hilary Mantel won the Booker literary prize for a 2nd time with her
Tudor saga ďBring Up the Bodies," the 2nd of a planned trilogy about
Thomas Cromwell. Her first part of the trilogy, ďWolf Hall," won in
2009.
(SFC, 10/17/12, p.A2)

2012 Oct 18, The European Court
of Justice ruled that Britain faces large fines for breaching EU law
on water treatment after plants in northern England and London
dumped raw sewage into waterways.
(AP, 10/18/12)
2012 Oct 18, Rosneft, Russiaís
state-controlled oil giant, offered British Petroleum $28 billion
for its half of the TNK-BP joint venture. A day earlier AAR, a
consortium of Russian billionaires, had agreed to sell its half of
the TNK-BP joint venture for the same amount.
(Econ, 10/20/12, p.57)

2012 Oct 19, Britain's
financial regulator fined Bank of Scotland (BoS) 4.2 million pounds
for failures in its systems which meant it held inaccurate mortgage
records for 250,000 of its customers.
(Reuters, 10/20/12)
2012 Oct 19, Relatives of four
British soldiers killed in the war in Iraq in 2003 won the right to
sue the government for negligence, in a landmark appeal court ruling
that could open the door for other claims. Families of some of the
soldiers who lost their lives said Britain sent them to the front
line with inadequate equipment.
(Reuters, 10/19/12)
2012 Oct 19, British engineers
at Air Fuel Synthesis (AFS) in Teeside, northern England, said they
have produced 5 liters of synthetic petrol over a period of three
months. AFS said it has developed a way to create petrol from air
and water.
(AP, 10/19/12)

2012 Oct 22, The BBC faced
growing fallout over sexual abuse allegations against Jimmy Savile,
a popular children's TV entertainer, as PM David Cameron accused the
broadcaster of changing its story about why it killed a news segment
on the accusations. Savile had been hailed as a popular fixture in
children's TV when he died at 84 last year.
(AP, 10/22/12)

2012 Oct 23, Britainís
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said a plan to shoot thousands
of badgers to stop the spread of tuberculosis in cattle has been
delayed in the face of overwhelming public opposition to the cull.
(AP, 10/24/12)

2012 Oct 28, London police
arrested one-time pop star Gary Glitter as part of an investigation
into allegations of child sex abuse by the late BBC presenter Jimmy
Savile. Glitter, born Paul Gadd, shot to fame in the early 1970s
with the hit "Rock and Roll". He has long been dogged by child sex
accusations. He was convicted of abusing two girls in Vietnam in
2006 and has been jailed in that country.
(AP, 10/28/12)

2012 Oct 30, Hitachi won a bid
to take over a company building up to six nuclear power plants in
Britain, reviving hopes for investment in the UK's ageing energy
infrastructure but leaving doubts they will come online in time.
(AP, 10/30/12)

2012 Oct 31, Former British
cabinet minister Lord Hazeltine (79) published a report demanding a
new British industrial policy.
(Econ, 11/3/12, p.57)
2012 Oct 31, Spanish
infrastructure company Ferrovial said an arm of China's sovereign
wealth fund has taken a 10 percent stake in the holding company
controlling Britain's largest airport Heathrow.
(AP, 10/31/12)

2012 Nov 1, British police
arrested comedian Freddie Starr as part of an investigation
triggered by allegations that the late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile
sexually abused hundreds of children.
(Reuters, 11/2/12)

2012 Nov 4, In Cyprus David Lee
Collins (19), an off-duty British soldier, was stabbed to
death in a nightclub. On Nov 5 a court in Cyprus remanded
three British tourists in custody on suspicion of the fatal
stabbing. On May 17, 2013, Mohammed Abdulkadir Osman (19) of London
was jailed for eight years for the fatal stabbing. Charges against
two other men arrested with him were dropped in a plea bargain.
(AP, 11/5/12)(Reuters, 5/17/13)

2012 Nov 5, Former British
stockbroker Nicholas Levene (48), who swindled investors out of 32
million pounds in a "ponzi" scheme, was jailed for 13 years.
Investors had handed Levene, a former deputy chairman at London
football Club Leyton Orient, more than 250 million pounds between
January 2005 and October 2009.
(AP, 11/6/12)

2012 Nov 6, British actor Clive
Dunn (b.1920), best known as a bumbling old butcher in the popular
World War Two sitcom "Dad' s Army" (1968-1970),
died in Portugal.
(AP, 11/7/12)
2012 Nov 6, Russia wheeled out
one of its treasured Cold War trophies, publishing a rare interview
with George Blake, a 90-year-old British double agent. Blake worked
for the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, from the 1940s. He
became a committed communist while a North Korean prisoner during
the Korean war, and worked for Moscow after being posted by MI6 to
Berlin in 1955.
(AP, 11/6/12)

2012 Nov 7, Western efforts to
oust Syrian President Bashar Assad shifted dramatically, with
Britain announcing it will deal directly with rebel military leaders
and Turkey saying NATO members have discussed using Patriot missiles
to protect a safe zone inside Syria.
(AP, 11/7/12)

2012 Nov 9, Britainís PM David
Cameron announced that Justin Welby (56), ordained in 1992 with a
background in the oil industry and in conflict resolution, has been
appointed succeed Rowan Williams as the next Archbishop of
Canterbury.
(AP, 11/9/12)
2012 Nov 9, PM David Cameron's
government announced that Britain will halt all aid spending in
India in 2015 in a significant shift in relations between the
emerging economic giant and its former colonial ruler.
(AP, 11/9/12)

2012 Nov 10, BBC Director
General George Entwistle resigned, just two months into the job,
after the state-funded broadcaster put out a program denounced by
the corporation's chairman as shoddy journalism. A day later the BBC
confirmed that Entwistle will get a full year's salary after 54 days
in the post.
(AP, 11/10/12)(AP, 11/12/12)
2012 Nov 10, Alexander
Perepilichny (44) collapsed and died not far from his home on an
upmarket, heavily protected estate in the county of Surrey, south of
London. The Russian businessman had helped Swiss prosecutors uncover
a powerful fraud syndicate. He had also provided evidence against
those linked to the 2009 death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei
Magnitsky. He is now the fourth person linked to the Magnitsky case
to have died in strange circumstances. In 2015 a toxicologist at a
pre-inquest hearing reported that his stomach contained a compound
associated with the poisonous plant gelsemium.
(AP, 11/29/12)(Econ, 5/23/15, p.47)

2012 Nov 12, British judges
ruled that Abu Qatada, a radical Islamist cleric described by
prosecutors as a key al-Qaida operative in Europe, cannot be
deported from Britain to Jordan to face terrorism charges. Britain's
Special Immigration Appeals Commission said it was not convinced
that Jordan would guarantee Abu Qatada a fair trial.
(AP, 11/12/12)
2012 Nov 12, Helen Boaden, the
head of news at the BBC, stepped aside after a program falsely
accusing a former senior politician of child abuse sparked one of
the worst crises in the publicly-funded broadcaster's 90-year
history. Boaden and her deputy Stephen Mitchell stepped aside
pending a review of why editors spiked the report last year on
Savile, who has been accused of abusing children on BBC premises.
(AP, 11/12/12)
2012 Nov 12, British MPs
criticised executives of Starbucks, Google and Amazon for not paying
more tax in Britain and Amazon said it had received a $252 million
(159 million pounds) demand for back taxes from France. A Reuters
report last month showed that Starbucks had paid no corporation, or
income, tax in the UK in the past three years and had paid only 8.6
million pounds since 1998.
(Reuters, 11/12/12)

2012 Nov 13, British Petty
officer Edward Devenney (30), from Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty
at the Old Bailey to a charge of misconduct in public office,
relating to the alleged theft of passwords and computer programmes
used to encrypt secret information.
(Reuters, 11/13/12)
2012 Nov 13, Peter Ball (80), a
former Church of England bishop was arrested in western England on
suspicion of sexually assaulting boys as young as 12 in the late
1980s and early 1990s. A 2nd man, a retired Anglican priest aged 67,
was detained in Sussex on suspicion of separate offences against two
teenage boys in 1981 and 1983.
(AP, 11/13/12)

2012 Nov 15, British regulators
filed charges against the owners of the Sellafield nuclear waste
site on allegations of illegal dumping of radioactive waste, adding
to the plant's history of controversy and complaints.
(AP, 11/15/12)
2012 Nov 15, The BBC agreed to
pay 185,000 pounds to Lord Alistair McAlpine, a former treasurer of
Britain's Conservative Party, who was wrongly accused of child sex
abuse as a result of one of its reports.
(AP, 11/15/12)

2012 Nov 16, Britain suspended
all aid to the government of Uganda over new evidence that British
taxpayers' money may have been stolen.
(Reuters, 11/17/12)

2012 Nov 20, Britain announced
that it has formally recognized the newly formed Syrian opposition
as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, Former UBS trader
Kweku Adoboli (32) was convicted and sentenced to seven years in
jail for the biggest fraud in British history, which resulted in a
loss of $2.3 billion for the Swiss bank. Adoboli was released on
parole in 2015 after serving about half his sentence.
(Reuters, 11/20/12)(AP, 6/24/15)
2012 Nov 20, Amnesty
International workers in London walked off the job for the second
strike in as many months. Tensions had been rising dramatically in
recent weeks as Amnesty's international operations prepare to
re-organize transferring some of its 500 jobs from a centralized
London base to 10 regional hubs around the world.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, The Church of
Englandís governing General Synod failed to get a required
two-thirds majority to allow women to serve as bishops.
(AP, 11/21/12)

2012 Nov 22, The British
government banned Ansaru, a Nigeria-based Islamist group, it said
was aligned with al Qaeda. Ansaru's full name is Jama'atu Ansarul
Musilimina Fi Biladis Sudan, which translates as "Vanguards for the
Protection of Muslims in Black Africa." A minister said the oulawed
organisation was probably responsible for the killing of Chris
McManus, a Briton, and Franco Lamolinara, an Italian.
(Reuters, 11/22/12)

2012 Nov 25, In London the
Rolling Stones held the first of 5 concerts to mark the 50th
anniversary of their debut.
(SFC, 11/26/12, p.A2)

2012 Nov 26, Britain named
Canadian central bank chief Mark Carney to head the Bank of England.
(Reuters, 11/26/12)
2012 Nov 26, France's EDF and
partner Centrica have received the first UK site licence for a new
nuclear plant in 25 years, paving the way for Britain's first new
nuclear station since 1995.
(AP, 11/26/12)
2012 Nov 26, A man (22) from
Northern Ireland was arrested in Britain in connection with the
death of Northern Ireland policeman Ronan Kerr, who was killed in
April last year when a bomb exploded under his car.
(Reuters, 11/26/12)

2012 Nov 27, British police
found the body of an elderly woman in a flooded home in the Welsh
city of St. Asaph. Sustained wet weather kept many areas of Britain
under water.
(SFC, 11/28/12, p.A2)

2012 Nov 29, Britainís Lord
Justice Brian Leveson said a new regulatory body should be
established in law to prevent more people from being hurt by "press
behavior that, at times, can only be described as outrageous,"
following a yearlong inquiry into newspaper wrongdoing.
(AP, 11/29/12)
2012 Nov 29, A British
environmental group released a report saying China is helping to
propel a $4 billion trade in illegally harvested timber and spurring
the destruction of fragile ecosystems across the globe.
(SFC, 11/30/12, p.A2)

2012 Dec 4, The British
government said Chancellor George Osborne will invest 5 billion
pounds in schools, science and transport projects.
(AP, 12/4/12)

2012 Dec 7, In London nurse
Jacintha Saldanha (46) was discovered hanging by a scarf from a
wardrobe in her nurses' quarters by a colleague and a member of
security staff at London's King Edward VII Hospital. She had
answered the phone on Dec 4 when two Australian disc jockeys called
to seek information about the former Kate Middleton, who was being
treated for severe morning sickness.
(AP, 12/13/12)

2012 Dec 9, British astronomer
Patrick Moore (89) died. He helped map the moon and inspired
generations of star gazers with decades of broadcasts on ďThe
Sky At Night," a BBC television show.
(Reuters, 12/9/12)

2012 Dec 10, PM Cameron said
Britain will be the first country to introduce a database of genetic
sequences into a mainstream health service, giving doctors a more
advanced understanding of a patient's illness and what drugs and
other treatments they need.
(Reuters, 12/10/12)
2012 Dec 10, The UK's Ministry
of Defence said it has awarded a 1.2 billion-pound ($1.92 billion)
submarine contract to British defense contractor BAE Systems.
(Reuters, 12/10/12)
2012 Dec 10, Britainís Standard
Chartered PLC agreed to pay a fine of $327 million on top of an
earlier $340 million penalty over money-laundering allegations by
American regulators.
(Econ, 12/15/12, p.73)
2012 Dec 10, Australian radio
announcers Mel Greig and Michael Christian, who made a Dec 4 prank
call to a British hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife
Kate, broke a three-day silence to speak of their distress at the
apparent suicide of nurse Jacintha Saldanha. Saldanha (46) was found
dead in staff accommodation near London's King Edward VII hospital
on Dec 7 after putting the hoax call through to a colleague who
unwittingly disclosed details of Kate's morning sickness to 2DayFM's
presenters.
(Reuters, 12/10/12)
2012 Dec 10, It was reported
that a Bangladesh war crimes tribunal has accused The Economist
magazine of hacking the computer of its presiding judge to record
conversations and read e-mails he exchanged with a lawyer regarding
charges related to its 1971 war of independence.
(SFC, 12/10/12, p.A2)(Econ, 12/15/12, p.41)

2012 Dec 11, Britain's Serious
Fraud Office (SFO) and London police made the first arrests as part
of a global investigation into the manipulation of interbank lending
rates, a scandal that has rocked the banking industry.
(Reuters, 12/11/12)
2012 Dec 11, British bank HSBC
agreed to pay a fine of $1.9 billion over money-laundering
allegations by American regulators.
(Econ, 12/15/12, p.73)

2012 Dec 16, A British medical
watchdog ruled that Derek Keilloh, a former army doctor, failed to
protect detainees and acted dishonestly following the death of Baha
Mousa, an Iraqi civilian beaten and killed in the custody of UK
troops in Sep, 2003.
(AP, 12/17/12)

2012 Dec 18, British electrical
retailer Comet closed its remaining stores for the final time as
part of a deal that will cost the government more than 23 million
pounds.
(Reuters, 12/18/12)

2012 Dec 19, The Bank of
England said that new governor Mark Carney, currently governor of
the Bank of Canada, will receive a 250,000 pound a year housing
allowance in addition to his 624,000 pound salary.
(Reuters, 12/19/12)
2012 Dec 19, British oil
company BP said it is selling its stake in a South China Sea gas
field to Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company for $308
million in cash.
(AP, 12/19/12)

2012 Dec 21, British Dr. Derek
Keilloh was stripped of his medical license for misconduct and
dishonesty over the death of an Iraqi man who was beaten and killed
while in the custody of British troops. Keilloh had treated Baha
Mousa, a hotel clerk who died at a British base after being detained
in Basra in September 2003.
(AP, 12/21/12)

2012 Dec 25, The British
Antarctic Survey (BAS), an ambitious plan to search for minute forms
of life in an ancient lake beneath Antarctica's ice, was suspended
because of technical problems.
(AP, 12/27/12)

2012 Dec 30, In London Mary
Konye (22) disguised herself with a veil and attacked Naomi Oni
(22), leaving her with disfiguring burns on her face, a hand and a
thigh. On March 21, 2014, Konye was sentenced to 12 years in jail
for throwing acid on her friend's face following an argument.
(AP, 3/21/14)

2012 Dan Conaghan authored ďThe
Bank: Inside the Bank of England. In concentrated on the period
since 1997.
(Econ, 3/31/12, p.95)
2012 John Darwin authored
ďUnfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain."
(Economist, 9/15/12, p.77)
2012 British MP David Lammy
authored ďOut of the Ashes: Britain After the Riots," a reflection
on three consecutive Labor governments and a commentary on the 2011
Tottenham riots.
(Econ, 2/8/14, p.57)
2012 Will Self authored his
novel ďUmbrella." It was short-listed for this yearís Man Booker
Prize. A US edition came out in 2013.
(Econ, 1/5/13, p.70)
2012 Stephen Wall authored ďThe
Official History of Britain and the European Community, Vol. II From
Rejection to Referendum, 1963-1975."
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.82)
2012 Britain asked Germanyís
national security agency (BND) to tap data pipes and swap
information in an operation code-named ďmonkey-shoulder." This was
stopped by Pres. Gerhard Schindler in 2013.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.41)

2013 Jan 2, Britain's Health
Protection Agency (HPA) said more than 1.1 million people in Britain
have succumbed to the norovirus winter vomiting disease so far this
season.
(AP, 1/2/13)

2013 Jan 3, British police
extradited terror suspect Abid Naseer (26) to the United States to
face charges that he took part in an alleged al-Qaida plot to
detonate explosives aboard the New York City subway system.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Argentine Pres.
Cristina Fernandez called on Britain to relinquish control of the
Falkland Islands.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 3, In Northern Ireland
8 police officers were injured when protests at the removal of the
British flag from Belfast City Hall turned violent for the first
time in more than two weeks.
(Reuters, 1/3/13)

2013 Jan 4, British police
charged Nepali army colonel Kumar Lama (46) with two counts of
torture committed in 2005 during the Himalayan nation's decade-long
civil war, despite the Nepali government's demanding his immediate
release.
(Reuters, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, The Church of
England confirmed that its House of Bishops, one of its most senior
bodies, has ended an 18-month moratorium on the appointment of gays
in civil partnerships as bishops. The decision was made in late
December.
(Reuters, 1/4/13)

2013 Jan 7, An Afghan soldier
turned his weapon against foreign and Afghan troops in a southern
province, killing one British soldier. 6 British soldiers were also
reported wounded.
(AP, 1/8/13)

2013 Jan 9, British health
officials said a new strain of the winter vomiting disease norovirus
has spread to France, New Zealand and Japan from Australia and is
overtaking all others to become the dominant local strain.
(Reuters, 1/9/13)

2013 Jan 10, British Detective
Chief Inspector April Casburn (53) was found guilty of one count of
misconduct for trying to sell information to one of Rupert Murdochís
tabloids.
(SFC, 1/11/13, p.A3)

2013 Jan 11, British police
released a report saying the late entertainer Jimmy Savile committed
more than 200 sex crimes from 1955-2009, with most victims children
and teens assaulted the length and breadth of Britain, from TV
studios to hospitals and even a hospice.
(AP, 1/11/13)

2013 Jan 14, Britainís
coalition government unveiled sweeping reforms to the state pension
system, scheduled to take place in 2017.
(Econ, 1/19/14, p.58)
2013 Jan 14, A British court
approved the extradition of former Credit Suisse trader Kareem
Serageldin (39) to the United States, where he is accused of
inflating the prices of subprime mortgage-backed bonds to the tune
of $540 million in 2007-2008.
(AP, 1/14/13)
2013 Jan 14, In Afghanistan a
soldier from 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment was
wounded by enemy action. He died of his wounds in Birmingham on Jan
16.
(AP, 1/16/13)

2013 Jan 15, British music
retailer HMV announced that it was putting itself into
administration.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.59)
2013 Jan 15, Europe's top court
said religious freedom is a right but not an absolute one, ruling
that British Airways discriminated against a devoutly Christian
employee by making her remove her crucifix, but backing a UK charity
that fired a marriage counselor who refused to give sex therapy to
gay couples.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Honduras
British tourist Kaya Omer (33) was shot dead in the dangerous city
of San Pedro Sula, after being assaulted by two gunmen who stole his
camera.
(Reuters, 1/15/13)

2013 Jan 16, British PM David
Cameron condemned horse meat found in beef burgers sold by Tesco and
said this was likely to prove both embarrassing and costly for the
firm.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, A helicopter
crashed into a crane and fell on a crowded street in central London,
sending flames and black plumes of smoke into the air. The pilot and
one person on the ground were killed and 13 others injured.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, In Algeria gunmen
attacked the gas complex at Ain Amenas in retaliation for France's
military intervention against al-Qaida-linked rebels in neighboring
Mali. The attack was carried out by militants from across northern
Africa and two from Canada. Gas processing was stopped because of
the terrorist attack. The attack left 37 hostages and 29 militants
dead. Moktar Belmoktar (41), aka MBM, orchestrated the attack.
(AP, 1/16/13)(AP, 1/20/13)(AP, 1/21/13)(SFC,
2/25/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 16, A Germany court in
Regensburg fined British bishop Richard Williamson $2,400 for
denying the Holocaust in a television interview some 4 years ago.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A2)

2013 Jan 17, A British judge
sentenced Achilleas Kallakis (44), a fake property tycoon, to seven
years in jail for defrauding two banks out of over 700 million
pounds ($1.1 billion), but said Allied Irish Banks and Bank of
Scotland deserved some blame for poor risk controls. Co-defendant
Alexander Williams (44), convicted of the same counts for his role
in producing forged documents to back up Kallakis's applications for
loans, was sentenced to 5 years. In May the jail terms for both men
were extended, 4 more for Kallakis and 3 more for Williams.
(AP, 1/18/13)(Reuters, 5/16/13)
2013 Jan 17, British, Norwegian
and Spanish oil companies evacuated workers from Algerian energy
facilities following the hostage-taking by Islamic militants in the
Sahara desert and Algeria's attempt to free them.
(AP, 1/17/13)

2013 Jan 18, The British
defence ministry said Britain and Australia will increase ties on
defence issues including cyber security and equipment programs such
as the BAE Systems-built Type 26 frigate.
(AP, 1/18/13)

2013 Jan 20, London's Heathrow
Airport cancelled a fifth of flights and airlines scrapped 40
percent of flights to Paris's main airports as snow continued to
blanket parts of Europe, with more forecast.
(AP, 1/20/13)

2013 Jan 21, London's Heathrow
airport cancelled 10 percent of flights, a day after it cut its
capacity by a fifth, and said services could face further delays
with more snowfall expected.
(Reuters, 1/21/13)

2013 Jan 22, A foul-smelling
cloud of gas escaped from a factory in northern France, making life
unpleasant from the outskirts of Paris to Britain's shores and
prompting scores of emergency calls. The mercaptan gas from the
Rouen chemical factory was said to be harmless.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, An Indonesian
court sentenced British grandmother Lindsay June Sandiford (56), to
death for smuggling 8.4 pounds of cocaine worth $2.5 million in her
suitcase onto the resort island of Bali ó even though prosecutors
had sought only a 15-year sentence. Indonesia has not carried out an
execution since 2008, when 10 people were put to death.
(AP, 1/22/13)(SFC, 4/9/13, p.A2)

2013 Jan 23, British PM David
Cameron promised to give Britons a referendum choice on whether to
stay in the European Union or leave if he wins an election in 2015.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, A new report said
irresponsible lending and intimidating debt collectors are pushing
thousands of people in Britain into depression and suicide. Separate
data showed more people are taking their own lives.
(Reuters, 1/23/13)

2013 Jan 24, Britainís and
Irelandís energy ministers signed a memorandum of understanding in
Dublin, agreeing to assess the costs and benefits of trading
renewable energy, to look at potential projects and to consider
sharing renewable energy statistics.
(Reuters, 1/24/13)

2013 Jan 28, Britain received
an initial 340 million pounds from the Swiss government as part of a
deal to tackle tax evasion that the government expects will net it
some 5 billion pounds over the next six years.
(Reuters, 1/29/13)

2013 Feb 1, Senior British
counterterrorism Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn (53) was
sentenced to 15 months in prison for trying to sell information to
Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, Chinese car maker
Geely said it has bought Manganese Bronze, the maker of London's
black taxis since 1948, for 11 million pounds, safeguarding jobs and
production of the vehicles in Britain.
(AP, 2/1/13)

2013 Feb 3, British PM David
Cameron met in London with the presidents of Afghanistan and
Pakistan for 2 days of talks to discuss prospects for peace with the
Taliban.
(AP, 2/4/13)

2013 Feb 4, Britainís Guardian
newspaper said that London's Metropolitan Police Service had stolen
the identities of dozens of dead children to use as aliases for
undercover officers, mining those children's personal histories to
build covers and even issuing fake passports in their names.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, Former British
energy secretary Chris Huhne (58) faced time behind bars after
pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice by asking his
then wife in 2003 to accept a penalty for a speeding offence he had
committed.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, Reg Presley (71),
the lead singer of 1960s British rock band The Troggs, died at his
home after a battle with cancer. He had scored a hit with the love
anthem "Wild Thing" (1966).
(Reuters, 2/4/13)

2013 Feb 5, European Union
regulators gave approval for Britain's 600 million pounds of public
support for the "Green Deal" energy-efficiency scheme. Britain's
Green Deal permits loans to homeowners to help them pay for
efficiency measures such as loft insulation, modern boilers, draught
proofing and other materials.
(AP, 2/5/13)

2013 Feb 6, A new British
report said between 400 and 1,200 patients are estimated to have
died needlessly at Stafford Hospital in central England between
January 2005 and March 2009 in one of the worst scandals to hit the
NHS since it was founded in 1948.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, Chris Foster of the
UK Border Agency said a significant smuggling operation has been
disrupted by one of the biggest raids in UK history. Police said 26
people were arrested for human trafficking and immigration
violations after raids that took place in London and other parts of
England and Scotland.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, British researchers
unveiled the Halley VI Research Station, a futuristic Antarctic
research base that can move, sliding across the frozen surface to
beat the shifting ice and pounding snow that doomed its
predecessors.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, The Royal Bank of
Scotland announced a settlement in which it agreed to pay American
regulators $475 million and another $137 million to Britainís
Financial Services Authority for rigging the London Interbank
Offered Rate (LIBOR).
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.71)

2013 Feb 7, UK authorities said
beef lasagna products recalled from British supermarkets by frozen
food company Findus had tested positive for more than 60% horsemeat.
(SFC, 2/8/13, p.A2)

2013 Feb 8, In Britain two
drug-addicted hit men who went to the wrong address and stabbed a
teenager to death in 2010 were sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in
jail. Prosecutors said Ben Hope (39) and Jason Richards (38) were
paid 1,000 pounds ($1,600) each to kill a man who owed money to a
businessman. But the pair killed Aamir Siddiqi (17) on his doorstep
instead.
(AP, 2/8/13)

2013 Feb 9, The French and
British governments promised to punish those found responsible for
selling horsemeat in beef products. French consumer safety
authorities said companies from Romania, Cyprus and the Netherlands
were part of a supply chain that resulted in horsemeat being
disguised as beef in frozen lasagna sold around the continent.
(Reuters, 2/9/13)(AP, 2/10/13)

2013 Feb 11, British health
officials said a new virus from the same family as SARS, that
sparked a global alert last September, has been found in a patient
in Manchester, who had traveled to the Middle East and Pakistan.
(AP, 2/11/13)

2013 Feb 12, British
authorities raided a slaughterhouse in Yorkshire and a meat
processing company suspected of selling horsemeat labeled as beef
for kebabs and burgers.
(SFC, 2/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 12, Barclays' new
chief executive pledged a fresh course for Britain's third biggest
bank, axing at least 3,700 jobs and pruning its investment bank as
he seeks to rebuild its reputation and boost profitability after a
series of scandals.
(Reuters, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, G4S settled a
months-long dispute with the organizers of the London Olympics,
having failed to supply enough security guards for the 2012 Games,
and said it will take a 70 million pound loss on the contract.
(AP, 2/12/13)

2013 Feb 13, British police
investigating the hacking of mobile phones to generate stories at
Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid made six more
arrests of journalists or former journalists.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, British fashion
retailer Republic became the latest casualty of the economic
downturn, seeking protection from creditors and putting around 2,500
jobs at risk.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, British couple
Peter Root (34) and Mary Thompson (34), who had been chronicling
their round-the-world cycling odyssey in a blog, died when they were
hit by a pickup truck in a province east of Bangkok.
(AP, 2/18/13)

2013 Feb 14, Ronald Dworkin
(81), an American philosopher and constitutional law expert, died in
London. He was best known for articulating the principle that the
most important virtue the law can display is integrity. He was a
professor of law at New York University and emeritus professor at
University College London. His books included ďA Matter of
Principle" (1985).
(AP, 2/14/13)(SFC, 2/19/13, p.C3)

2013 Feb 15, British health
officials said a fourth person in Britain has contracted a
potentially fatal SARS-like virus which was unknown in humans until
a few months ago, but said the risk to the population remained very
low.
(AP, 2/15/13)

2013 Feb 17, British actor
Richard Briers (79), best known for the 1970s TV sit-com "The Good
Life" but also for his Shakespearean roles, died at his London home.
His film credits included "A Chorus Of Disapproval" (1989) and
"Watership Down" (1978) in which he was the voice of Fiver.
(Reuters, 2/18/13)

2013 Feb 18, British PM David
Cameron flew into India promising to try to revive Indian interest
in the Eurofighter even though New Delhi has chosen a French-made
rival.
(Reuters, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, Britain's Royal
Mint said it has started to manufacture gold sovereign coins in
India for the first time since 1918.
(Reuters, 2/18/13)

2013 Feb 20, Scottish singer
Emeli Sande won the coveted best album honour at the BRIT Awards for
"Our Version of Events", confirming her status as favourite going
into British pop's big night of the year.
(Reuters, 2/20/13)

2013 Feb 21, Britainís HM
Revenue and Customs published the names of what it described as "tax
cheats" for the first time, part of efforts to address public anger
over tax evasion at a time of economic austerity.
(Reuters, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, A London jury
found Irfan Naseer (31), Irfan Khalid (27) and Ashik Ali (27),
arrested in September 2011, guilty of being central figures in a
foiled plot to explode knapsack bombs in crowded areas.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, Ray Cusick (84),
BBC designer, died. He created the Daleks, mutant monsters in
sinister shells, for the ďDoctor Who" TV series.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.90)
2013 Feb 21, Spainís Ferrovial,
a construction and services company, announced that it would buy
Enterprise, a British provider of municipal services, for £385 mil
($608m).
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.68)

2013 Feb 22, Britain suffered
its first ever sovereign ratings downgrade from a major agency when
Moody's stripped the country of its coveted top-notch triple-A
rating, dealing a major blow to Chancellor George Osborne.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, BP tanker drivers
have begun a 3-day strike at Petroineos's Grangemouth refinery in
Scotland over a plan to transfer some of them to another employer,
which would affect their pensions and pay.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Frozen food maker
Birds Eye said it would withdraw some products in Britain and
Ireland after it found traces of horse DNA in one of its ready meals
sold in Belgium.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, French catering
and vouchers group Sodexo said it was withdrawing all frozen beef
products from the market in Britain after finding horse meat in some
of its products.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)

2013 Feb 25, Britain's most
senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien (74), resigned
following allegations he behaved in an inappropriate way with
priests, and said he would not take part in the election of Pope
Benedict's replacement. O'Brien said he had tendered his resignation
some months ago.
(Reuters, 2/25/13)

2013 Feb 27, British health
officials said gonorrhea cases have soared by 25 percent in the past
year in England as superbug or drug-resistant strains of the
sexually transmitted infection (STI) take hold worldwide.
(AP, 2/27/13)

2013 Mar 1, Britainís Food
Standards Agency said traces of horse meat has been found in ground
beef sold by Taco Bell, which has only three British outlets. Horse
DNA also was found in Birds Eye spaghetti Bolognese and beef lasagna
and spicy minced beef skewers from catering supplier Brakes.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Andrey Borodin
(45), former head of Russia's fifth largest bank, told a Russian
newspaper his application for asylum has been granted in Britain
after an application by his lawyers on the grounds that he faced
political persecution in Russia. Borodin fled Russia in March, 2011.
(Reuters, 3/1/13)

2013 Mar 5, Stealth action game
"Dishonored," featuring a masked bodyguard-turned-assassin, was
named best video game of the year at an award ceremony in London.
(Reuters, 3/5/13)

2013 Mar 6, Britain said it
will provide armored vehicles, body armor and search-and-rescue
equipment to Syria's opposition, but was still stopping short of
arming the country's rebels.
(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, British travel firm
Thomas Cook said it would cut 2,500 UK jobs and close 195 stores in
Britain as the euro crisis, high fuel costs and unrest in key
destinations like Egypt and Greece take their toll on the holiday
business.
(Reuters, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, In Spain Alvin Lee
(b.1944), British virtuoso rock guitarist, died following
complications from routine surgery. He as a member of the band Ten
Years After, which burst onto the US music scene following their
1969 Woodstock performance.
(SFC, 2/8/13, p.D5)

2013 Mar 7, British stock
market trader Paul Milsom was sentenced to two years in jail, the
first sentence to come out of the Financial Services Authority's
(FSA) biggest investigation into insider dealing. Milsom, who was a
senior equities trader at the investment arm of life insurer Legal
& General, was also ordered to pay 245,000 pounds, the total
profit he made from insider trading.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Gogglebox, a
British reality show, began airing on Channel 4. The show featured
recurring couples, families and friends from around Britain sitting
in their homes watching weekly British television shows.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gogglebox)
2013 Mar 7, Coalfield Resources
said Daw Mill Colliery in Warwickshire, Britain's largest coal mine,
will close permanently with the loss of at least 550 jobs due to a
fire that has burned ferociously for two weeks.
(AP, 3/7/13)

2013 Mar 8, British police in
London arrested Muslim cleric Abu Qatada (52), who has been
described as a key al-Qaida operative in Europe, following a series
of raids by counterterrorism police, three days before the
government's latest court bid to extradite him to Jordan.
(AP, 3/9/13)

2013 Mar 11, The British
government launched a campaign to promote London as a center for
Islamic finance, seeking to counter growing competition from rising
centers such as Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, Sally Davies,
Britain's top health official, said antibiotic resistance poses a
catastrophic threat to medicine and could mean patients having minor
surgery risk dying from infections that can no longer be treated.
(AP, 3/11/13)

2013 Mar 15, Three British
Muslims, including a convert who was featured in a documentary about
radical Islam, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in London.
Richard Dart (29), Imran Mahmood (21), and Jahangir Alom (26), were
arrested last July and accused of traveling to Pakistan between 2010
and 2012 with the intention of committing terrorist acts.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Britain Dr.
Davinderjit Bains, arrested last year, admitted 39 charges against
30 victims, including sexual assault, voyeurism and sexual activity
with a child. He had used a Tieex 4GB Waterproof HD Spy Watch DVR,
which has a camera on its face, to record assaults on patients at
his practice in Royal Wootton Bassett in western England.
(AP, 3/15/13)

2013 Mar 17, Britain's Treasury
chief said the government will compensate UK troops who lose money
to Cyprus's bailout tax, a levy of 6.75 to 9.9 percent on all bank
balances as part of a deal with creditors for Ä10 billion ($13
billion) in rescue money. British residents of Cyprus not working
for the UK military or government could be out of pocket.
(AP, 3/17/13)

2013 Mar 18, The Queen
Elizabeth Prize for Engineering was awarded to Marc Andreessen, Sir
Timothy Berners-Lee, Vint Cerf, Robert Kahn and Louis Pouzin, for
their efforts in the development of the Internet.
(Econ, 3/23/13, p.84)

2013 Mar 18, The British
government said it will join industrial partners to create a 2
billion pound aerospace center, part of efforts to bolster
manufacturers as it struggles to revive a flagging economy.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, Britain's three
main political parties agreed to create a new system to regulate the
country's scandal-hungry newspapers, after a public inquiry exposed
a culture of industrial-scale phone hacking and other unethical
behavior.
(Reuters, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, Argentina's
government accused the British banking giant HSBC of facilitating
money laundering and tax evasion.
(AP, 3/18/13)

2013 Mar 19, PM David Cameron's
spokesman said Britain will trim the budgets of most government
departments by 1 percent a year over the next two years to raise
money for capital spending. The government also said up to 400,000
more Britons will qualify for a new higher flat-rate state pension
and introduce the reform a year earlier than expected.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, An English judge
said oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, who has been in hiding since he was
sentenced to jail for contempt of court last year, organised a
complex fraud to embezzle billions of dollars from Kazakh bank BTA.
(Reuters, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, A British court
ruled that two Saudi princes involved in litigation in London over a
business dispute did not have immunity from being sued, a new blow
to the royal pair after they failed in an attempt to have the case
heard in secret. The litigation, which has been going through
British courts since December 2011, stems from sales in 2010 and
2011 of shares in Fi Call Ltd, a company jointly owned by Prince
Abdulaziz and Jordanian businessman Faisal Almhairat.
(Reuters, 3/19/13)

2013 Mar 20, Chancellor George
Osborne said Britain will raise the personal tax allowance to 10,000
pounds in 2014-15, a year earlier than expected.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, James Herbert
(69), best-selling British horror writer, died at his home in
Sussex. His 23 novels included "The Rats" (1974).
(Reuters, 3/20/13)

2013 Mar 21, Justin Welby, the
new Archbishop of Canterbury was formally enthroned after using a
radio interview to back Church of England positions on
homosexuality, which include opposition to same-sex marriage.
(AP, 3/21/13)

2013 Mar 22, A British judge
upheld a decision to ban a Christian group from placing adverts on
London buses that suggested people could be cured of homosexuality.
(AP, 3/22/13)

2013 Mar 23, Boris Berezovsky
(67), fervent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in
unclear circumstances at his home in Ascot, 25 miles (40 km) west of
London. A Home Office pathologist soon found the cause of death to
be consistent with hanging.
(Reuters, 3/24/13)(Reuters, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 23, Spanish,
Portuguese and British police boarded a ship loaded with nearly two
tons of cocaine destined for sale in Europe and arrested nine
people. The ship was in the Atlantic Ocean, some 700 miles southwest
of Portugal's Cape Verde islands.
(AP, 3/24/13)

2013 Mar 26, The British
government published its long-term Nuclear Industrial Strategy but
fell short of announcing a guaranteed power price which operators
want spelled out before investing billions in new power stations.
(AP, 3/26/13)

2013 Mar 27, The Bank of
England said that its recommendations for Britain's banks to plug a
25 billion-pound capital shortfall by December won't call on further
taxpayer funds.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, Abu Qatada, a
radical Muslim cleric, thwarted another effort by Britain to have
him deported to Jordan after a court accepted arguments that he
would face testimony obtained by torture.
(AP, 3/27/13)

2013 Mar 28, Britain's domestic
spy agency (MI5) chose Andrew Parker (50) as its new director.
Parker was an ornithologist with counter-terrorism experience in the
Middle East and Northern Ireland.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, In Britain
Giovanni Di Stefano, a flamboyant but unqualified lawyer, was
sentenced to 14 years in jail for fraud. His clients included
deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He had no legal qualifications
and was not registered to practice in Britain or Italy, where he had
offices.
(AP, 3/28/13)

2013 Apr 3, British regulator
Ofgem said Utility SSE has been fined 10.5 million pounds for
mis-selling, the largest fine the regulator has ever imposed on an
energy supplier.
(AP, 4/3/13)

2013 Apr 5, Britain's most
high-profile entertainment retailer HMV was handed a lifeline when
Hilco, a turnaround group bought it in a deal worth about 50 million
pound, ensuring a future for a firm which gave the Beatles one of
their first big breaks.
(AP, 4/6/13)

2013 Apr 7, Britain pledged
$102 million to Sudan over three years, with about half going to
Darfur.
(AP, 4/8/13)

2013 Apr 8, Margaret Thatcher
(b.1925), the "Iron Lady" who transformed Britain and inspired
conservatives around the world, died following a stroke. The former
prime minister (1979-1990) had radically rolled back the state
during her 11 years in power.
(AP, 4/8/13)

2013 Apr 9, Britainís Financial
Conduct Authority (FCA) announced sweeping changes in financial
regulation, telling banks they can no longer blame customers when
products go wrong and promising to study how consumers behave to
make sure they can make the right decisions.
(Reuters, 4/10/13)
2013 Apr 9, British supermarket
chain Asda said very low levels of the horse pain-killing drug
phenylbutazone, also known as bute, had been found in horsemeat
discovered in tins of corned beef. This was the first such case in
Britain.
(Reuters, 4/9/13)

2013 Apr 10, In London Mohammed
Rizwan and Bahader Ali admitted engaging in conduct in preparation
of acts of terrorism. Prosecutors said they were part of a gang that
planned to detonate bombs hidden in backpacks. Three of the other
plotters were convicted earlier this year.
(AP, 4/10/13)
2013 Apr 10, Robert Edwards
(87), a British Nobel prize-winning scientist (2010), died after a
long illness. He was known as the father of in-vitro fertilisation
(IVF) for pioneering the development of "test tube babies."
(Reuters, 4/10/13)

2013 Apr 13, The renowned
London School of Economics denounced the BBC for using a
student-organized trip to North Korea as "cover" for a reporting
trip to the secretive communist country.
(AP, 4/14/13)

2013 Apr 15, The British
government approved a 1.9% rise in the minimum wage, giving the
country's lowest-paid employees a bigger increase than most other
workers but one that is still less than inflation.
(AP, 4/15/13)

2013 Apr 16, A European court
blocked Britain from extraditing a mentally ill suspect accused of
trying to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon. The European
Court of Human Rights ruled that sending Haroon Aswat to a prison in
the United States would breach his human rights due to the "severity
of his mental condition." Aswat was arrested on a US warrant in
2005, and has been fighting extradition ever since.
(AP, 4/16/13)

2013 Apr 18, Four Britons were
jailed for plotting al Qaeda inspired bombings across the country,
including an attack on an army base using a remote-controlled toy
car packed with explosives which they planned to drive under the
gates. Zahid Iqbal, Mohammed Sharfaraz Ahmed, Umar Arshad and Syed
Farhan Hussain, from Luton, north of London, had all pleaded guilty
last month to preparing for acts of terrorism.
(AP, 4/18/13)

2013 Apr 19, Britain's credit
standing took a further blow when Fitch Ratings became the second
major international agency to strip the country of its top-notch
credit rating.
(Reuters, 4/19/13)

2013 Apr 22, The British
government said it will proceed with selling some or all of its 33
percent stake in uranium enrichment company Urenco. Three countries
hold equal stakes in the world's second-largest nuclear fuel vendor
- the UK, the Netherlands and Germany, whose stake is held by
utilities E.ON and RWE.
(AP, 4/22/13)

2013 Apr 24, Britain sought to
inject new life into the country's stagnant economy by giving banks
greater incentives to lend to small and medium-sized firms which
complain they are starved of credit.
(AP, 4/24/13)

2013 Apr 25, Britainís Ministry
of Defense announced that a new drone-operating squadron had begun
operating from RAF Waddington in eastern England.
(AP, 4/27/13)
2013 Apr 25, Richard Dart (30),
a white Briton who was the subject of a 2011 documentary detailing
his conversion to radical Islam, was jailed on terrorism charges on
the strength of evidence gleaned from fragments of deleted text
recovered from a laptop.
(Reuters, 4/25/13)

2013 Apr 26, Irfan Naseer, the
ringleader of an al-Qaida-inspired plot to detonate knapsack bombs
in England was sentenced in London to at least 18 years in jail.
(AP, 4/26/13)
2013 Apr 26, British celebrity
publicist Max Clifford (70) was charged with 11 counts of indecent
assault, including on two underage girls. He was arrested in
December as part of an investigation into sex crime allegations
against the late Jimmy Savile.
(Reuters, 4/26/13)

2013 Apr 27, British anti-war
protesters demonstrated outside a Royal Air Force base used to
control drone flights over Afghanistan. Until this week, British
drones were operated only from a US Air Force base in Nevada.
(AP, 4/27/13)

2013 Apr 29, Mohammed Saleem
(82), a grandfather, was stabbed to death as he walked home from his
mosque in the Small Heath area of Birmingham. On July 22 Pavlo
Lapshyn (25), a Ukrainian in the UK on a sponsored work placement
scheme, was charged with Saleemís murder. On Oct 21 Lapshyn pleaded
to stabbing Saleem and planting bombs near three British mosques. On
Oct 25 Lapshyn was sentenced to 40 years.
(Reuters,
7/23/13)(http://tinyurl.com/llgflpp)(AFP, 10/25/13)

2013 Apr 30, In London,
England, 6 men from the Birmingham area pleaded guilty to planning a
terrorist attack on June 30, 2012, against a far-right anti-Muslim
group. They were caught in a random highway check after the rally
ended early.
(SFC, 5/1/13, p.A3)

2013 Apr, A subsidiary of Saudi
Arabia's Kingdom Holding Co agreed to refinance the debt it used to
buy London's Savoy Hotel with a new 200 million-pound loan.
(AP, 5/4/13)

2013 May 1, British judges
ruled that the government has breached European Union air quality
law and asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for guidance on
what action needs to be taken, delaying immediate improvements to
air pollution.
(Reuters, 5/1/13)
2013 May 1, Bill Roache,
Britainís longest-serving soap actor, was arrested on suspicion of a
1967 rape.
(SFC, 5/2/13, p.A2)

2013 May 2, Britainís
Chancellor George Osborne said tax havens such as Bermuda and the
Cayman Islands will work more closely with Britain and other
European countries to fight tax evasion.
(Reuters, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, A British judge
sentenced businessman James McCormick (57), who sold fake bomb
detectors, to 10 years in jail. The millionaire, convicted last
month, made an estimated 50 million pounds ($77.8 million) from the
sales of his non-working detectors ó which were based on a novelty
golf ball finder ó to countries including Iraq, Belgium, Niger and
Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, British news media
reported that Stuart Hall (83) had pleaded guilty last month
to sex abuse charges against young girls decades ago. Media were
barred from reporting the plea until now.
(SFC, 5/3/13, p.A5)

2013 May 4, Nigel Evans (55), a
member of PM David Cameron's Conservative party, was detained over
sexual attacks allegedly carried out at his home in Lancashire,
northern England between July 2009 and March of this year. Evans had
announced in 2010 that he was gay.
(AP, 5/5/13)

2013 May 8, The British
government announced a modest, austerity-sensitive program of
legislation intended to tighten immigration controls, reform
pensions and reduce red tape for business as Queen Elizabeth II laid
out plans for the next year at the state opening of Parliament.
(AP, 5/8/13)

2013 May 9, British
yacht-racing champion Andrew "Bart" Simpson, who won a gold medal at
the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, was killed when his vessel
capsized in SF Bay during training for the America's Cup.
(Reuters, 5/9/13)

2013 May 10, British fugitive
Andrew Terence Moran (31) was taken into custody in Spain's eastern
town of Calpe. He was accused of taking part in the armed robbery of
25,000 pounds from a mail van in England in 2005, then escaping from
security guards during his UK trial four years ago.
(AP, 5/13/13)

2013 May 11, In England a 2-day
meeting of G7 financial representatives concluded with formal
acknowledgement that each member needed to secure their own
countries' growth by balancing economically restraining austerity
measures with growth-enhancing policies.
(AP, 5/11/13)

2013 May 13, President Obama
welcomed British PM David Cameron to the White House, where the two
leaders discussed issues ranging from economic development to the
unfolding conflict in Syria.
(http://tinyurl.com/koo96fu)

2013 May 14, Malaysia-based
Genting Group, a major casino operator, accused Phil Ivey (37) of
amassing millions of dollars in winnings by cheating at baccarat.
Ivey, an American, is one of the world's top professional poker
players. The game in question took place on Aug 20-21, 2012, at
Crockfords, one of London's oldest and most respected casinos.
(AP, 5/16/13)

2013 May 16, Four British
LulzSec hackers, who pleaded guilty to a series of high-profile
cyberattacks on computers in the US and Britain, were sentenced to
up to 32 months in prison.
(SFC, 5/17/13, p.A2)

2013 May 22, In the Woolwich
area of south London, England, 2 men armed with meat cleavers and
possibly a firearm, hacked off-duty soldier Lee Rigby (25) to death
while horrified bystanders watched. They rushed toward police when
officers arrived on the scene and police opened fire. British-born
Londoner Michael Adebolajo (28) and Michael Adebowale (22) boasted
of their exploits and warned of more violence. Two additional
suspects were arrested the next day. On May 24 police arrested Abu
Nusaybah after he told spoke on BBCís "Newsnight" that intelligence
officers had approached Adebolajo six months ago to see if he would
work for them as an informant. Adebolajo Adebowale faced trial in
November.
(AP, 5/23/13)(AP, 5/24/13)(SFC, 5/24/13,
p.A5)(AFP, 10/9/13)

2013 May 23, Britainís
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it has fined a wealth
management unit of US bank JPMorgan Chase 3.08 million pounds ($4.6
million) for being unable to show it was giving clients the right
advice.
(AP, 5/23/13)

2013 May 24, The Church of
England published a plan to approve the ordination of women bishops
by 2015, a widely supported reform it just missed passing last
November after two decades of divisive debate.
(Reuters, 5/24/13)
2013 May 24, In England Sarah
McClay (24) was mauled by a Sumatran tiger in an enclosure at South
Lakes Wild Animal Park in Cumbria. She soon died from her injuries.
(AP, 5/25/13)

2013 May 25, British police in
London arrested 3 more people as part of an investigation in the May
22 slaughter of Lee Rigby, an off-duty soldier.
(SSFC, 5/26/13, p.A6)

2013 May 27, British police
arrested a 10th suspect in connection with the May 22 street killing
of soldier Lee Rigby, an apparent Islamic extremist attack that has
horrified the country and heightened racial tensions.
(AP, 5/27/13)

2013 May 28, French defense
contractor Thales was reported to have won a 10-year contract worth
600 million pounds ($906 million) to service the British Royal
Navy's submarines and ships.
(Reuters, 5/28/13)

2013 Jun 1, Protesters dressed
as badgers and led by Queen guitarist Brian May marched through
central London demanding that the government scrap a plan to cull
badgers, aimed at slowing the spread of a cattle disease.
(Reuters, 6/1/13)

2013 Jun 2, Three members of
Britain's House of Lords were suspended by their parties after
apparently being caught in newspaper stings agreeing to lobby
Parliament in return for cash. Labour peers Brian Mackenzie and Jack
Cunningham and Ulster Unionist member John Laird were recorded by a
Sunday Times reporter pretending to represent a solar energy firm.
(AP, 6/2/13)

2013 Jun 4, Britain and France
made back-to-back announcements that the nerve gas sarin was used in
Syria's conflict. A UN probe said it had "reasonable grounds" to
suspect small-scale use of toxic chemicals in at least four attacks
in March and April in Syria.
(AP, 6/4/13)

2013 Jun 6, The British
Competition Commission barred France's Groupe Eurotunnel from
docking its ferries at Dover for at least two years due to concerns
its purchase of three ferries would allow it to dominate over half
of the market.
(Reuters, 6/6/13)
2013 Jun 6, Britain expressed
regret about the abuse of Kenyans by colonial forces during the Mau
Mau insurgency in the 1950s and announced a compensation package for
more than 5,200 survivors worth a total of 20 million pounds.
(AP, 6/6/13)
2013 Jun 6, British comic
novelist Tom Sharpe (85), known for his "Wilt" series about a
harassed and hen-pecked university lecturer, died in Spain. His
first novel, "Riotous Assembly" (1971), lampoons South Africa's
apartheid system and the police.
(AP, 6/6/13)

2013 Jun 7, Vodafone Group Plc
said it paid no corporation tax in Britain for the year to March
2013, prompting fresh criticism from campaigners who have made the
UK mobile telephone group a target in the debate on corporate tax
payments.
(AP, 6/7/13)

2013 Jun 9, Britainís Guardian
newspaper said that Edward Snowden (29), a contractor who says he
worked at the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence
Agency, is the source of leaks about a phone records monitoring
program and an Internet scouring program called PRISM. Snowden was
working in an NSA office in Hawaii until he left for Hong Kong on
May 20.
(AP, 6/10/13)(Econ, 6/15/13, p.11)

2013 Jun 10, In London 6 men,
who plotted to attack a rally by the anti-Islamist English Defence
League (EDL) using guns, knives and a homemade nail bomb in June
2012, were given lengthy jail terms of almost 20 years each.
(AP, 6/10/13)
2013 Jun 10, British drugmaker
AstraZeneca PLC said it is to acquire Pearl Therapeutics Inc., a
Redwood-City, California-based company involved in therapies for
asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for at least $560
million.
(AP, 6/10/13)

2013 Jun 11, British police
scuffled with scores of anti-G8 demonstrators in central London and
surrounded a building where protest organizers were meeting before a
summit of world leaders in Britain next week.
(Reuters, 6/11/13)

2013 Jun 12, Britain's top
court ruled that Nigeria-born, oil tycoon Michael Prest should
surrender 7 properties to his English former wife, Yasmin. Prest was
ordered to transfer the properties as partial payment of a 17.5
million pound (about $27 million) settlement.
(AP, 6/12/13)

2013 Jun 13, An influential
committee of British lawmakers accused search company Google of
dodging its taxes in a scathing report that said the US Internet
company took on highly contrived arrangements serving no purpose
other than to avoid paying its fair share.
(AP, 6/14/13)

2013 Jun 14, A British court
fined the Sellafield nuclear waste site 700,000 pounds for the
illegal dumping of radioactive material, the latest controversy to
assail an industry that will have a toxic legacy lasting thousands
of years.
(Reuters, 6/14/13)

2013 Jun 15, Britain clinched a
deal with its major offshore tax havens on Saturday that will see 10
British overseas territories and crown dependencies sign up to
international protocols on information sharing. Those included were
Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar,
Anguilla, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and
the Isle of Man.
(AP, 6/15/13)

2013 Jun 18, Ballet dancer
David Wall (67), known for becoming the youngest male principal at
the Royal Ballet at the age of 21, died of cancer at his home in
London.
(Reuters, 6/19/13)
2013 Jun 18, Jordan's King
Abdullah II published a royal decree endorsing a treaty with Britain
that sets the stage for the possible deportation of radical Muslim
preacher Abu Qatada.
(AP, 6/18/13)

2013 Jun 19, Britain's Girl
Guides unveiled their new pledge. Gone is the reference to loving
God, replaced by a call to "be true to myself and develop my
beliefs." It also retained a reference to serving the queen.
(AP, 6/19/13)
2013 Jun 19, The UK's highest
court ruled that the government was wrong to have imposed sanctions
on an Iranian bank in 2009 over alleged links to Iran's nuclear
program. The decision mirrored a January ruling by the European
Union's General Court, which overturned sanctions imposed in 2010,
and could result in the bank suing Britain for damages.
(AP, 6/19/13)
2013 Jun 19, Chinese
conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group said it would spend $1.6 billion (1
billion pounds) to buy British yacht maker Sunseeker and develop an
upmarket London hotel, the latest example of a trend for Chinese
companies to acquire top luxury global brands.
(AP, 6/19/13)

2013 Jun 20, Britainís
Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said the aggregate capital
shortfall at five UK banks at the end of 2012 was 27.1 billion
pounds, slightly higher than its 25 billion initial estimate in
March this year.
(AP, 6/20/13)

2013 Jun 26, British Chancellor
George Osborne unveiled a new round of spending cuts, but promised
to pump some of the savings straight back into the economy to
counter charges of excessive austerity.
(AP, 6/26/13)

2013 Jun 28, In England the
3-day Glastonbury music festival opened. It featured acts on 58
stages across 900 acres.
(SSFC, 6/30/13, p.A4)

2013 Jul 1, Mark Carney took
over as the 120th governor of the Bank of England.
(Econ, 6/15/13, p.58)

2013 Jul 3, The British
government said it is banning khat, an herbal stimulant, despite
advice against such a move by an official advisory body.
(AP, 7/3/13)

2013 Jul 5, Tanzania police
said they have arrested Iqbal Ahsan Ali, a British man, suspected of
involvement in unspecified "terrorism activities" in Britain.
(Reuters, 7/6/13)

2013 Jul 12, In Britain a fire
erupted on a Boeing Dreamliner at London's Heathrow airport. The
fire broke out on the plane, operated by Ethiopian Airlines, when it
was parked at a remote stand with no passengers on board, eight
hours after arriving from Addis Ababa.
(Reuters, 7/13/13)

2013 Jul 13, British reservists
Lance Corporals Craig Roberts and Edward Maher and Corporal James
Dunsby, died after an arduous march in rugged terrain on the Brecon
Beacons, a remote area of central Wales on one of the hottest days
of the year. On March 2, 2016, British health and safety officials
said they would give the Ministry of Defense (MoD) a "Crown Censure"
over the deaths during the test for the elite Special Air Service
(SAS).
(AP, 3/2/16)

2013 Jul 17, Britain legalized
gay marriage after Queen Elizabeth II gave her royal stamp of
approval, clearing the way for the first same-sex weddings next
summer.
(AP, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 17, The American
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accused Barclayís, a British
bank, of manipulating energy prices in California and other states
and slapped the bank with a $453 million fine. Barclayís said its
trading was legitimate.
(Econ, 7/20/13, p.64)

2013 Jul 18, British police
arrested two men on terrorism charges following explosions at two
mosques in central England.
(Reuters, 7/19/13)

2013 Jul 21, Britainís Chris
Froome pedaled through the streets of Paris as victor of the 2013
Tour de France.
(CSM, 7/21/13)

2013 Jul 22, Kate Middleton,
the Duchess of Cambridge, gave birth to a baby boy. The child is now
third in line to the British throne.
(AP, 7/22/13)

2013 Jul 26, Interpol rejected
a second request from Moscow to put British investment fund head
William Browder on its search list, dealing a fresh blow to Russia's
drive to jail the man behind a campaign to expose corruption and
rights violations.
(Reuters, 7/26/13)

2013 Jul 27, In London,
England, Ilya Segalovich (48) died of brain cancer. He was the
co-founder of Russia's largest search engine, Yandex.
(AP, 7/28/13)

2013 Jul 29, Britain's Home
Office confirmed it will demand a 3,000-pound ($4,630) refundable
bond for visas for "high-risk" visitors from six former colonies
(Nigeria, Ghana, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka). The
pilot scheme has brought warnings at home and abroad that it will
damage trade.
(AP, 7/29/13)

2013 Jul 31, Britainís Guardian
newspaper reported that a top-secret US national Security Agency
program called XKeyscore allows an analysts to search with no prior
authorization through vast databases containing e-mails, online
chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals.
(SSFC, 8/4/13, p.A4)(Econ, 8/3/13, p.23)

2013 Jul, Renewal, a British
think tank, was founded by David Skelton (35) to promote
working-class Toryism.
(Econ, 8/6/16, p.45)

2013 Aug 5, In Britain Dutch
scientists served hamburgers made from cow stem cells at a public
tasting in London. Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, underwrote the
250,000-euro ($330,000) project, which began in 2006.
(AP, 8/5/13)
2013 Aug 5, British Adm. John
"Sandy" Woodward (81) died. He led the Royal Navy task force during
the 1982 Falklands War. Woodward published a book about the
conflict: "One Hundred Days" (1997).
(AP, 8/5/13)

2013 Aug 6, It was reported
that Somalia's government has signed an oil and gas exploration deal
with Soma Oil and Gas, a newly formed British company, the first
such agreement by a central government in Somalia following decades
of conflict.
(AP, 8/6/13)

2013 Aug 7, British police
arrested Domenico Rancadore (64), a senior member of an Italian
mafia clan. He had been sentenced to seven years in jail while on
the run and was detained in west London under a European arrest
warrant.
(Reuters, 8/8/13)

2013 Aug 9, British authorities
said they have captured Anthony Judge, one of their 'most wanted'
tax criminals, and added 10 new names to a list of high-priority
targets who are accused of cheating the government out of hundreds
of millions of pounds. Judge was detained on July 4 when trying to
enter Britain on a forged passport.
(Reuters, 8/9/13)

2013 Aug 12, The City of London
Corporation said it has demanded that ad-firm Renew pull the plug on
a network of high-tech trash cans, which measure the Wi-Fi signals
emitted by smartphones to follow commuters as they pass by.
(AP, 8/12/13)

2013 Aug 14, In Switzerland
British stuntman Mark Sutton (42) was killed during a gathering
organized by Online extreme sports involving 20 wingsuit pilots who
were filmed as they jumped from helicopters.
(AP, 8/15/13)

2013 Aug 16, British PM David
Cameron asked European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to
"urgently" send monitors to Gibraltar's border with Spain where
tightened security checks are fuelling a row between the two
countries.
(Reuters, 8/16/13)

2013 Aug 19, Anti-fracking
protesters scuffled with police outside an oil exploration site in
rural England and broke into the headquarters of the energy company
which is pioneering shale gas exploration in Britain.
(Reuters, 8/19/13)

2013 Aug 27, British farm union
officials said a cull of badgers has begun in a bid to halt the
spread of cattle tuberculosis. Plans called for about 5,000 badgers
to be killed during the six-week program.
(AP, 8/27/13)

2013 Aug 31, Veteran British
journalist and broadcaster David Frost (74), who won fame around the
world for his TV interviews with former President Richard Nixon,
died aboard the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship, where he was due to
give a speech.
(AP, 9/1/13)

2013 Sep 7, British police
arrested more than 160 people in east London during rival protests
by hundreds of anti-Islamist activists and thousands of
counter-demonstrators near an area home to one of Britain's largest
Muslim communities.
(Reuters, 9/7/13)

2013 Sep 12, Britain's
government officially launched plans to privatize more than half of
Royal Mail, saying an initial sale of shares in the state-run postal
service would occur within weeks.
(AFP, 9/12/13)

2013 Sep 13, London police
arrested 12 men involved in a bold attempt to take control of a
bank's computer in order to rob the institution. 4 men were charged
the next day with trying to steal millions of pounds from Santander
Bank by hacking into its computer system. 8 others were released on
police bail pending further enquiries.
(AP, 9/13/13)(Reuters, 9/14/13)

2013 Sep 17, A man (23) was
attacked in London in the early hours as he made his way home from a
midnight launch event for the notoriously violent videogame "Grand
Theft Auto V." Three British teenagers, ages 14-17, were later
charged over the stabbing and robbery. The victim remained in
hospital in a stable condition. On Sep 20 game's publisher Take-Two
Interactive Software said that it had raked in more than a billion
dollars during the first three days of sales, smashing previous
records.
(AFP, 9/21/13)

2013 Sep 19, The organizers of
the Rhodes Scholarships said a Canadian philanthropist (the McCall
MacBain Foundation) is giving of 75 million pounds ($120 million) to
the program, the largest single donation since the prestigious
program was founded in 1903.
(AP, 9/19/13)

2013 Sep 23, British adventurer
Sarah Outen arrived at Adak in the Aleutian Islands becoming the
first woman to row solo from Japan to Alaska. She had left Choshi,
Japan, on April 27.
(SFC, 9/25/13, p.A6)

2013 Sep 20, British police
said 8 men have been arrested on suspicion of stealing 1.3 million
pounds ($2 million) from a Barclays bank branch by tapping into its
computers.
(AP, 9/20/13)

2013 Sep 24, A member of staff
at London's Metropolitan Police (MPS) headquarters was one of two
people arrested as part of a bribery investigation sparked by the
phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World tabloid. A total of
74 people have now been arrested under Operation Elveden, the
investigation into illegal payments to police and public officials
by journalists.
(AFP, 9/24/13)

2013 Sep 25, British police
said they have arrested three more people as part of a long-running
investigation into a suspected slavery ring in Wales, bringing the
total number of arrests to seven.
(AP, 9/25/13)

2013 Sep 26, Interpol issued an
arrest notice on behalf of Kenyan authorities for Samantha
Lewthwaite (29), a Muslim convert and fugitive Briton whom news
media have dubbed the "white widow." Her first husband was one of
the suicide bombers in the 2005 attack on the London transit system
that killed 52 commuters. She was wanted by Kenyan authorities over
alleged involvement in a plot to bomb holiday resorts.
(AP, 9/26/13)

2013 Sep 30, Britain staff in
hundreds of post offices started industrial action in a bitter row
with the government over jobs, pay and closures.
(AFP, 9/30/13)
2013 Sep 30, Swedish flat-pack
furniture giant IKEA started selling residential solar panels at its
store in Southamptom, Britain, the first step in its plan to bring
renewable energy to the mainstream market worldwide.
(AP, 9/30/13)

2013 Oct 7, Britain launched
its new National Crime Agency (NCA) and unveiled a revamped strategy
to combat serious organized crime, which it says costs the country
24 billion pounds ($38.6 billion) and represents a threat to
national security.
(Reuters, 10/7/13)

2013 Oct 8, Francois Englert of
Belgium and Peter Higgs of Britain won the 2013 Nobel Prize in
physics for their theory on how the most basic building blocks of
the universe acquire mass.
(AP, 10/8/13)
2013 Oct 8, British
pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline said it would seek regulatory
approval next year for RTS,S, a vaccine that has shown positive
results against malaria in children.
(Econ, 10/12/13, p.94)

2013 Oct 9, Sex workers in the
legendary London district of Soho demonstrated in carnival masks and
negligees against evictions they claim threaten their safety and the
unique nature of the area.
(AFP, 10/9/13)

2013 Oct 10, Britain confirmed
that Liberia's former president and warlord Charles Taylor is to
serve out his 50-year prison sentence for war crimes in a British
jail.
(AFP, 10/10/13)

2013 Oct 11, Shares in
newly-privatized Royal Mail soared on their stock market debut,
bolstering criticism that the company ó which traces its
five-century history back to King Henry VIII ó was undervalued by
the British government.
(AP, 10/11/13)

2013 Oct 13, Companies involved
in a $1.27 billion project to develop a business district around
Britainís Manchester airpor announced that Chinese construction
giant Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG) has signed a
deal with British firms to develop the area.
(AFP, 10/13/13)

2013 Oct 15, Britainís
chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborn, announced a deal with
China intended to make Britain the main offshore hub for trading in
Chinaís currency and bonds and for foreign institutions investing in
China. In exchange Chinaís banks would be allowed to enter Britain
as branches of the their parents rather than as subsidiaries.
(Econ, 10/19/13, p.62)

2013 Oct 19, The violin played
by the Titanic's bandmaster as the ship sank beneath the waves sold
at a London auction for £900,000 ($1.45 million, 1.06 million
euros), a world record for memorabilia from the doomed liner.
(AFP, 10/19/13)
2013 Oct 19, British actor and
musician Noel Harrison (79), suffered a heart attack in Devon and
died in a hospital. He sang the Academy Award-winning ballad "The
Windmills of Your Mind," by French composer Michel Legrand and
American lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman.
(AP, 10/22/13)

2013 Oct 24, Italian weekly
L'Espresso reported that US and British intelligence services have
monitored Italian telecoms networks, targeting the government and
companies as well as suspected terrorist groups.
(Reuters, 10/24/13)

2013 Oct 25, Britainís PM David
Cameron accused US whistleblower Edward Snowden and unnamed
newspapers of assisting Britain's enemies by helping them avoid
surveillance by its intelligence services.
(Reuters, 10/25/13)
2013 Oct 25, British police
appeared to downplay a raid after claiming to have seized suspected
3D-printed gun parts from a shop in Manchester. Some observers
pointed out that the images released by police resembled printer
parts.
(AFP, 10/25/13)(AP, 10/25/13)
2013 Oct 25, British police
freed a Malaysian woman (69), an Irishwoman (57) and a 30-year-old
Briton. A man and a woman, both 69, were arrested following an
investigation on slavery at a house in London. Police announced the
release on Nov 21 and said the women had been held for at least 30
years.
(AFP, 11/21/13)(SFC, 11/22/13, p.A5)

2013 Oct 26, In Manchester,
England, Ray Teret (72), the former driver for disgraced late BBC
entertainer Jimmy Savile appeared in court to face charges including
multiple counts of raping girls younger than 16.
(AP, 10/26/13)

2013 Oct 28, British security
group G4S denied that its workers had electrocuted and drugged
prisoners at South Africa's Mangaung prison, the maximum security
facility it ran before the government stepped in to restore order
earlier this month.
(Reuters, 10/28/13)
2013 Oct 28, A major storm,
dubbed the St Jude storm, lashed southern Britain, the Netherlands
and parts of France, knocking down trees, flooding low areas and
causing travel chaos. 5 deaths were reported.
(AP, 10/28/13)

2013 Oct 30, Electronica
singer-songwriter James Blake (25) won Britain's prestigious Mercury
Prize for his second album, "Overgrown."
(AFP, 10/30/13)
2013 Oct 30, Barclays,
Britain's second-largest bank, revealed that it was the subject of
an investigation by regulators in Britain and other countries over
"possible attempts to manipulate certain benchmark currency exchange
rates." Six traders were soon suspended amid an investigation into
whether international currency markets were rigged.
(AP, 11/2/13)

2013 Oct 31, In Britain
television cameras were allowed into one of the highest courts for
the first time, hailed as a landmark move towards open justice while
still protecting the rights of vulnerable witnesses.
(AFP, 10/31/13)
2013 Oct 31, In London
Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif told British Deputy PM Nick Clegg that his
country had started talks with the Pakistani Taliban.
(Reuters, 10/31/13)

2013 Nov 2, Britainís Guardian
newspaper reported that spy agencies in Germany, France, Spain and
Sweden are carrying out mass surveillance of online and phone
traffic in collaboration with Britain, according to documents leaked
by Edward Snowden.
(AFP, 11/2/13)

2013 Nov 4, The British
Co-operative Group announced plans to close around 50 of its bank
branches as part of a £1.5 billion rescue plan that will give
investors majority control of the lender.
(AFP, 11/4/13)
2013 Nov 4, It was reported
that Britain's biggest retailer Tesco plans to install screens at
its petrol stations that scan customers' faces so that advertising
can be tailored to their age and gender.
(AFP, 11/4/13)

2013 Nov 5, Hundreds of
Anonymous protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks protested outside
Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II's London home, as part of a
global demonstration against austerity.
(AFP, 11/5/13)
2013 Nov 5, Britain signed an
information-sharing agreement with the Cayman Islands, one of its
overseas territories, to help British authorities improve tax
collection.
(Reuters, 11/5/13)
2013 Nov 5, Britainís Ministry
of Defense said a soldier from the 3rd Battalion, the Mercian
Regiment, was killed "as a result of an explosion during a
vehicle-born suicide attack" near Lashkar Gah, Helmand province.
(AFP, 11/6/13)
2013 Nov 5, Somali money
transfer company Dahabshiil welcomed a temporary injunction by a
British court allowing its lifeline services to continue,
transferring funds dwarfing levels of foreign aid to the war-torn
nation.
(AFP, 11/5/13)

2013 Nov 6, British energy firm
Centrica said it has signed a deal to supply British homes with
Qatari liquefied natural gas in a tie-up worth £4.4 billion and
lasting until 2018.
(AFP, 11/6/13)
2013 Nov 6, Britainís BAE
Systems said it will axe 1,775 shipbuilding jobs and close a
historic yard as a government austerity drive hits demand.
(AFP, 11/6/13)

2013 Nov 7, Britain's spy
chiefs gave public, televised testimony to British lawmakers for the
first time ever amid a fierce debate over intelligence tactics
following allegations of spying on other governments.
(AP, 11/7/13)
2013 Nov 7, Former long-serving
BBC political editor John Cole (b.1927) died in Surrey after a long
illness.
(AFP, 11/8/13)

2013 Nov 8, A British court
martial board convicted a royal marine of murder following the
execution of an injured insurgent in Afghanistan. The board ruled
that Marine A, was guilty of killing the man in cold blood in
Helmand Province more than two years ago. Sergeant Alexander
Blackman was named on Dec 5, after a judge dismissed his claim that
his identity should be protected for his own safety. On Dec 6
Blackman was sen tneced to at least 10 years in prison.
(AP, 11/8/13)(AP, 12/5/13)(AP, 12/6/13)
2013 Nov 8, Merlin, an
entertainment group, successfully floated shares on the London stock
market. A year earlier it had opened a Legoland theme park in
Malaysia.
(Econ, 11/16/13, p.72)

2013 Nov 11, Britain said it
has revived diplomatic relations with Iran and appointed a
non-resident charge d'affaires, two years after an angry mob
ransacked the British embassy in Tehran. Iran appointed a new charge
d'affaires to Britain to revive diplomatic ties.
(Reuters, 11/11/13)
2013 Nov 11, Struggling
low-cost British airline Flybe said it plans to axe another 500 jobs
as it pursues a round of cost-cutting measures.
(AFP, 11/11/13)

2013 Nov 12, Mavis Batey
(b.1921), a renowned British code-breaker during WWII, died.
(SFC, 11/29/13, p.C4)
2013 Nov 12, British composer
John Tavener (69) died. His spiritually inspired music was performed
at the funeral of Princess Diana. He was best known for works
including "The Whale", which was released in the late 1960s by the
Beatles' record label Apple.
(AFP, 11/13/13)

2013 Nov 13, The Bank of
England said Britain's economic recovery "has finally taken hold,"
as it upgraded its growth forecasts despite headwinds from the
eurozone debt crisis.
(AFP, 11/13/13)

2013 Nov 15, The British
government gave the green light for oil firm EnQuest to invest £4.0
billion in a North Sea oil field scheme that will support an
estimated 20,000 jobs.
(AFP, 11/15/13)
2013 Nov 15, The EU executive
said it had found no proof of British claims that Spain had violated
European Union rules on border and customs checks at Gibraltar's
border.
(AFP, 11/15/13)
2013 Nov 15, In Sri Lanka
Britain's Prince Charles formally opened a Commonwealth summit in
Colombo. Its build-up has been dogged by a dispute over rights
abuses at the end of Sri Lanka's ethnic war. Britain's PM David
Cameron landed in the war-torn Jaffna region to meet victims of Sri
Lanka's ethnic conflict after leaving the Commonwealth summit.
(AFP, 11/15/13)

2013 Nov 16, PM David Cameron
announced that Britain was providing a further 30 million pounds to
help the relief effort after the devastating typhoon in the
Philippines.
(AFP, 11/16/13)
2013 Nov 16, Britain's PM David
Cameron threatened to push for an independent international inquiry
into allegations of war crimes at the climax of Sri Lanka's 26-year
civil war if the island nation does not conduct its own probe by
March 2014.
(Reuters, 11/16/13)

2013 Nov 17, Doris Lessing
(b.1919), the Nobel prize-winning, free-thinking, world-traveling
and often-polarizing British author, died. Her work included "The
Golden Notebook" (1962) and dozens of other novels that reflected
her own improbable journey across the former British empire.
(AP, 11/17/13)

2013 Nov 18, Britain's Labour
Party suspended Paul Flowers, the former chairman of Co-operative
bank, after a video emerged in which he is allegedly caught buying
illegal drugs.
(AP, 11/18/13)
2013 Nov 18, In London female
serial killer Joanna Dennehy (30) admitted murdering three men and
dumping their bodies in ditches. Their bodies were found in March
and April riddled with stab wounds.
(AFP, 11/18/13)

2013 Nov 19, Britainís Oxford
Univ. Press declared ďselfie," a smart phone self-pportrait, the
2013 word of the year. Use of the word dated back to at least 2002.
(SFC, 11/20/13, p.A3)
2013 Nov 19, British biochemist
Frederick Sanger (b.1918) died. He twice won the Nobel Prize in
chemistry (1958 & 1980) and was a pioneer of genome sequencing.
(AP, 11/20/13)

2013 Nov 20, The Church of
England's ruling body voted overwhelmingly for proposals that could
see the ordination of women bishops next year.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, At UN talks in
Poland the governments of Norway, Britain and the United States said
they will allocate $280 million of their multi-billion dollar
climate change finances to a new initiative aimed at halting
deforestation.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)

2013 Nov 22, The disgraced
ex-chairman of Britain's Co-op Bank, Paul Flowers (63), was arrested
in a probe into the supplying of drugs in a scandal that has fast
become a political row.
(AFP, 11/22/13)

2013 Nov 27, In England a
businessman who stabbed a Chinese family of four to death at their
home on April 29, 2011, was found guilty of murdering them. Du
Anxiang (54), a Chinese citizen, was convicted by a jury at
Northampton Crown Court in central England.
(AFP, 11/27/13)
2013 Nov 27, The first
autopsies in Europe to take place without bodies being cut open are
to take place after a new machine was unveiled in Sheffield. This
will enable many post-mortem examinations to be carried out
digitally, saving the body from being cut open with a scalpel.
(AFP, 11/27/13)

2013 Nov 28, London Mayor Boris
Johnson stated in so many words that inequality is in the nature of
capitalism because those with a low IQ are ill-equipped to spread
opportunity to all who can compete for its spoils.
(Econ, 12/7/13, p.61)
2013 Nov 28, England's High
Court overturned a decision to grant bail to an Italian mafia boss
who was arrested in London after two decades on the run. Domenico
Rancadore was wanted in Italy to serve a seven-year jail term for
his role in the Sicilian mafia and authorities are seeking his
extradition.
(AFP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 28, In London Rakesh
Bhayani (41) was sentenced for the murder of Carole Waugh, a wealthy
London woman whose body was found stuffed in a car trunk months
after her disappearance. Nicholas Kutner (48), was ordered to serve
13 years in prison after he admitted conspiracy to commit fraud.
(AP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 28, British energy
provider Npower, a subsidiary of German giant RWE, announced plans
to cut about 1,460 jobs in Britain and outsource customer service
operations to India.
(AFP, 11/28/13)

2013 Nov 30, Britain said it is
giving 10 million pounds ($16.4 million) in aid to Central African
Republic amid a dramatic escalation in the former French colony's
humanitarian crisis.
(AP, 11/30/13)

2013 Dec 2, At a ceremony in
Londonderry, Northern Ireland, French artist Laure Prouvost won
Britain's Turner prize for contemporary art for her video
installation set among a mock-tea party setting entitled "Wantee."
(AFP, 12/3/13)

2013 Dec 3, Ida Pollock
(b.1908), romance novelist, died in southwest England. Her more than
120 books included some 70 "bodice-rippers" for romance publisher
Mills & Boon, the British arm of Harlequin Enterprises.
(AP, 12/9/13)

2013 Dec 4, British PM David
Cameron faced demands for the return of priceless artefacts looted
from Beijing in the 19th century, the last day of his visit to
China.
(AFP, 12/4/13)

2013 Dec 6, In London three
members of a self-styled "Muslim patrol" who harassed passers-by for
wearing short skirts, holding hands and drinking alcohol were jailed
for up to 16 months after admitting a variety of public order and
assault charges.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 6, The death toll from
hurricane-force Storm Xaver sweeping across northern Europe rose to
6 when high winds hurled a tree limb against a car, killing 3 people
in Poland. Britain and Denmark had already reported 3 deaths.
Thousands of people in Britain faced a second day of flooding as the
country confronted its worst tidal surge in 60 years after Xaver
roared across northern Europe.
(Reuters, 12/6/13)(AP, 12/6/13)
2013 Dec 6, Romania's Interior
Ministry said Adrian Procop (21), a Romanian man accused of stealing
seven masterpieces from a Dutch museum, was arrested in Britain
after months on the run. Procop entered the Kunsthal museum at night
in Oct 2012 with a friend, Radu Dogaru, and stole artworks worth 18
million euros ($24 million).
(AFP, 12/6/13)

2013 Dec 8, British MPs lined
up to condemn plans by an independent body to grant them an
11-percent pay rise, embarrassed at how such largesse will be
perceived at a time of deep public spending cuts.
(AFP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 8, Britain's National
Crime Agency (NCA) arrested three people following fresh allegations
of match-fixing at English non-league games.
(AFP, 12/8/13)

2013 Dec 9, Two Damien Hirst
(48) signed prints, "Pyronin Y" and "Oleoylsarcosin," were taken
from the Exhibitionist Gallery in west London in the early hours by
a thief who forced the gallery doors.
(AP, 12/11/13)

2013 Dec 11, British regulators
announced a record £28 million fines against state-rescued Lloyds
Banking Group after finding staff were at risk of selling unsuitable
products amid the lure of bonuses.
(AFP, 12/11/13)
2013 Dec 11, G8 health
ministers met in London to tackle what experts warn is a dementia
time-bomb, with cases set to soar as the world's population ages.
(AFP, 12/11/13)
2013 Dec 11, The United States
and Britain suspended all non-lethal aid to the opposition in
northern Syria after Islamist rebels seized key bases and warehouses
belonging to the Western-backed Free Syrian Army.
(Reuters, 12/11/13)

2013 Dec 13, Prince Harry
became the first member of Britain's royal family to reach the South
Pole after a three-week charity trek with injured military veterans
from Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia.
(AFP, 12/13/13)

2013 Dec 14, Peter O'Toole
(b.1932), the star of "Lawrence of Arabia," died in London.
(AP, 12/16/13)
2013 Dec 14, Dissident Ugandan
General David Sejusa launched an opposition party in London and said
it was time for President Yoweri Museveni to end his 28-year rule, a
fresh challenge to a leader who is now among the longest serving in
Africa.
(Reuters, 12/14/13)

2013 Dec 16, British Petroleum
said it has won official approval to develop a key shale gas project
in Oman at a cost of $16 billion (11.6 billion euros).
(AP, 12/16/13)

2013 Dec 18, The Bank of
England said it will issue plastic banknotes for the first time in
its history, with Winston Churchill gracing the first run. The note,
carrying a value of ¬£5 ($8.2, 6.0 euro), is to be released in 2016.
(AFP, 12/18/13)
2013 Dec 18, A British judge
sentenced the former lead singer of the rock band Lostprophets to 29
years in jail, saying that Ian Watkins had "plumbed new depths of
depravity" in committing a string of sexual offenses against very
young children.
(AP, 12/18/13)
2013 Dec 18, Great Train Robber
Ronnie Biggs (84), part of a gang of at least 12 men that robbed a
Glasgow-to-London Royal Mail train on Aug 8, 1963, died.
(AP, 12/18/13)(Econ, 1/4/14, p.74)

2013 Dec 19, A jury at London's
Old Bailey criminal court decided unanimously that Michael Adebolajo
(29) and Michael Adebowale (22) were guilty of murdering Lee Rigby
(25), an Afghan war veteran, on May 22 but not guilty of the
attempted murder of a police officer.
(Reuters, 12/19/13)
2013 Dec 19, Hunks of plaster
and dust rained down on a packed audience when the ceiling of
Londonís Apollo Theater partially collapsed. More than 75 people
were injured ó seven seriously.
(AP, 12/20/13)(SFC, 12/20/13, p.A5)

2013 Dec 20, The British
government said it has agreed to destroy part of Syria's chemical
weapons stockpile at a commercial facility.
(Reuters, 12/20/13)

2013 Dec 24, Hurricane-force
winds and torrential rain disrupted transport networks and cut power
supplies in Britain and France, one of the busiest travel days of
the year just before Christmas, pushing the death toll to at least 6
people.
(Reuters, 12/24/13)
2013 Dec 24, Britain
posthumously pardoned Alan Turing (1912-1954) for a 1952 gay sex
conviction which tarnished the brilliant career of the code breaker
credited with helping win the war against Nazi Germany and laying
the foundation for the computer age.
(AP, 12/24/13)

2013 Dec 29, British police
said they have arrested two men after a suspected arson attack last
evening on the MS King Seaways, a ferry in the North Sea carrying
more than 1,000 people from Newcastle in England to Amsterdam.
(Reuters, 12/29/13)

2013 Vic Gatrell authored ďThe
First Bohemians: Life and Art in Londonís Golden Age."
(Econ, 9/28/13, p.79)
2013 Chris Sheldrick founded
the British firm What3Words. The company created a geocoding system
for the simple communication of locations with a resolution of three
meters.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words)(Econ,
7/2/16, p.71)
2013 The British Virgin Islands
with 30,000 inhabitants pulled in $92 billion in foreign direct
investment this year.
(Econ, 3/29/14, p.38)

2014 Jan 2, The influential New
York Times and Britainís Guardian newspapers hailed fugitive
intelligence leaker Edward Snowden as a "whistleblower" and threw
its weight behind calls for him to be shown clemency.
(AP, 1/2/14)
2014 Jan 2, British author
Elizabeth Jane Howard (b.1923) died. She was best known for "The
Cazalet Chronicles," which followed the tangled lives and loves of
several generations of an aristocratic household in the run-up to
World War II.
(AP, 1/3/14)

2014 Jan 7, In eastern England
HH-60G Pave Hawk chopper, based at the US-run Lakenheath air base,
crashed at a nearby nature reserve in Cley-next-the-Sea, Norfolk,
while flying low on night time training exercise. 4 airmen were
killed. Investigators later reported that the chopper had flown into
flock of geese likely startled by its noise.
(AFP, 1/8/14)(AP, 7/9/14)

2014 Jan 8, Britainís Electoral
Commission said voters should have to prove their identity at
polling stations, as it launched a study into fraud concerns around
ethnic South Asian communities.
(AFP, 1/8/14)

2014 Jan 10, A new analysis of
British census figures said almost one in 10 babies and toddlers in
England and Wales are Muslim, illustrating the growth of the
minority community.
(AFP, 1/10/14)

2014 Jan 13, Britain vowed to
honor all government debt up until the date of Scotland's possible
independence, should Scottish people vote to break away from the
United Kingdom later this year.
(AFP, 1/13/14)
2014 Jan 13, France's Total
said it has agreed to explore for shale gas in Britain, making it
the first major oil company to enter the country's market in the
face of widely publicized environmental protests.
(AP, 1/13/14)

2014 Jan 15, British actor
Roger Lloyd-Pack (69), best known for playing dim-witted
street-sweeper Trigger on the sitcom "Only Fools and Horses"
(1981-1991), died at his home in London.
(AP, 1/16/14)

2014 Jan 16, British police
working alongside counterparts in the Philippines and Australia said
they had dismantled a paedophile ring that streamed live sexual
abuse of Filipino children as young as six over the Internet, with
victims' parents involved in some cases.
(AFP, 1/16/14)

2014 Jan 17, In Romania a
British diplomat (46) plummeted from the highest floor of a hotel in
the northern city of Baia Mare after leaving a farewell note.
(AFP, 1/17/14)

2014 Jan 18, BBC presenter
Komla Dumor (41), one of Ghana's best known journalists, died
suddenly. Dumor, a presenter on the BBCís World News channel and its
"Focus on Africa" program, suffered a heart attack at his London
home.
(AFP, 1/19/14)

2014 Jan 19, British athletics
great Chris Chataway (82), best known for being one of the
pacemakers for Roger Bannister's landmark four-minute mile run in
1954, died after a long battle with cancer. He was knighted by Queen
Elizabeth II in 1995 for his services to the aviation industry.
(www.bbc.com/sport/0/athletics/25801188)

2014 Jan 21, Britain told Iran
to stop supporting the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad
militarily, urging it to back efforts to broker peace in Syria
instead.
(Reuters, 1/21/14)

2014 Jan 27, Google said that
it had agreed to buy British artificial intelligence start-up
company DeepMind. The company, co-founded Demis Hassabis, was
purchased for $400 million.
(AFP, 1/27/14)(Econ, 6/25/16, SR p.4)

2014 Jan 28, Britain announced
it would take in hundreds of vulnerable Syrian refugees, targeting
those most traumatized by the 3-year civil war.
(AFP, 1/28/14)
2014 Jan 28, Debut author
Nathan Filer won Britain's Costa Book Award for his novel "The Shock
of the Fall", which draws on his experience as a mental health
nurse.
(AFP, 1/28/14)
2014 Jan 28, Canada's BMO
Financial Group said it will acquire UK-based financial manager
F&C for 1.3 billion Canadian dollars (860 million euros).
(AFP, 1/28/14)

2014 Jan 30, England-based
Oxfam confirmed accepting US actress Scarlett Johansson's decision
to step down, saying her promotion of Israeli drinks firm
SodaStream, which has a factory in a settlement east of Jerusalem,
was "incompatible" with her role at the international aid agency.
(AFP, 1/30/14)

2014 Feb 3, French comedian
Dieudonne M'bala M'bala was banned from entering Britain after he
reportedly planned to visit to support Nicolas Anelka over the
footballer's use of the "quenelle" gesture. The "quenelle" is
Dieudonne's trademark stiff-armed gesture that critics say is a
disguised Nazi salute but that he defends as a generic "up yours" to
the French establishment.
(AFP, 2/3/14)

2014 Feb 5, In southwest
England more than 8,000 homes were without power after fresh storms
battered the region, sending huge waves crashing onto the coastline
and damaging sea defenses.
(AFP, 2/5/14)
2014 Feb 5, Millions of
commuters in London faced delays and disruption after Tube staff
went on strike over plans to close London Underground ticket
offices.
(AFP, 2/5/14)

2014 Feb 6, Millions of
commuters faced a second day of travel chaos due to a 48-hour strike
by London Underground workers angry over ticket office closures and
job cuts.
(Reuters, 2/6/14)

2014 Feb 9, Severe flooding and
landslips cut off rail links to large parts of southwest England for
more than 24 hours as the government came under pressure for its
handling of storms battering Britain.
(Reuters, 2/9/14)

2014 Feb 10, The River Thames
burst its banks after reaching its highest level in years, flooding
riverside towns upstream of London.
(AP, 2/10/14)

2014 Feb 11, Barclays PLC faced
widespread criticism after the scandal-plagued bank announced plans
to slash up to 12,000 jobs this year while also setting aside more
money to pay bonuses.
(AP, 2/11/14)

2014 Feb 12, British police
searched a home in the southeastern town of Crawley as part of an
investigation into reports that a man named as Abdul Waheed Majid
(41) was responsible for a suicide attack in Syria.
(AFP, 2/13/14)
2014 Feb 12, Britainís Serious
Fraud Office (SFO) arrested Sudhir Choudhri, an Indian-born donor to
one of Britain's ruling political parties, and his son as part of an
investigation into Rolls-Royce's dealings in Asia.
(Reuters, 2/14/14)
2014 Feb 12, Flooded
communities in Britain faced a fresh battering from storms and high
winds as emergency efforts in stricken areas picked up following
criticism of a sluggish response.
(AFP, 2/12/14)

2014 Feb 15, Two people died in
weather-related incidents as storms continue to batter Britain.
Officials said that 22 severe flood warnings are in place. More
heavy rain and winds were expected.
(AP, 2/15/14)

2014 Feb 19, Europe's largest
defense contractor BAE Systems says the governments of the United
Kingdom and Saudi Arabia have agreed on new pricing for a massive
sale of 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets.
(AP, 2/19/14)

2014 Feb 20, Former News of the
World editor Rebekah Brooks (45) was acquitted of one charge at
Britain's phone hacking trial as she began her defense against four
more.
(AP, 2/20/14)
2014 Feb 20, Formula One boss
Bernie Ecclestone won a multimillion-dollar case at London's High
Court relating to the sale of F1 in 2005.
(AP, 2/20/14)

2014 Feb 25, British police
arrested former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg and three other
people in the latest in a string of detentions linked to suspected
terror offences relating to Syria.
(AFP, 2/25/14)

2014 Feb 26, Britain sentenced
Michael Adebolajo (29) to life in prison without parole for the May
22, 2013, murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby. Accomplice Michael Adebowale
(22) was sentenced to 45 years.
(SFC, 2/27/14, p.A2)

2014 Feb 28, British
authorities said anti-fraud police have arrested 110 people in
Europe and the United States in an international crackdown on gangs
selling bogus shares that cost some investors their life savings.
(Reuters, 2/28/14)

2014 Mar 2, At the Hollywood
Academy Awards ď12 Years a Slave," directed by Steve McQueen of
Britain, won the Best Picture Oscar. Matthew McConaughtey won the
Best Actor Oscar for his role in ďDallas Buyers Club." Cate
Blanchett won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in ďBlue Jasmine."
Actress Lupita Nyong'o (31) of Kenya won an Oscar for Best
Supporting Actress in the movie "12 Years A Slave." Jared Leto won
the Best Supporting Oscar for his role in ďDallas Buyers Club."
Alfonso Cuaron won the Best Director Oscar for ďGravity," which won
a total of seven Oscars.
(SFC, 3/3/14, p.C4)(Econ, 3/8/14, p.58)

2014 Mar 7, Hundreds of British
lawyers marched on Parliament to protest legal aid cuts. The
government planned to reduce the legal aid budget by $360 million a
year through 2019.
(SFC, 3/8/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 7, BAE Systems Applied
Intelligence, the cyber arm of Britain's premier defense contractor,
published its own research on suspected Russian spyware known as
Turla, which it called "snake." The sophisticated piece of spyware
has been quietly infecting hundreds of government computers across
Europe and the United States in one of the most complex cyber
espionage programs uncovered to date.
(Reuters, 3/7/14)

2014 Mar 11, Bank of England
governor Mark Carney said the alleged manipulation of foreign
exchange markets is "as serious as" the Libor rate rigging scandal
that rocked the financial sector. Global regulators were
investigating a number of firms linked to the suspected rigging of
foreign exchange trading.
(AFP, 3/11/14)

2014 Mar 14, Tony Benn (88),
the totem of the British left, died at his London home. The Labour
cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s had spearheaded the movement
against the Iraq war.
(AFP, 3/14/14)

2014 Mar 17, A British judge
ruled that Domenico Rancadore (65), a convicted Mafia boss, will be
allowed to return to his comfortable home in west London rather than
sent back to Italy and put in prison. The judge cited concerns about
conditions in Italian prisons.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, British
telecommunications company Vodafone agreed to buy Spain's Ono for
7.2 billion euros ($10 billion) as it seeks to expand operations
across Europe.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, In London fashion
designer L'Wren Scott, the girlfriend of Mick Jagger, died of an
apparent suicide. Her LS Fashion Ltd. company was heavily in debt at
the time it filed its most recent accounts.
(AP, 3/18/14)

2014 Mar 20, British regulators
fined Mark Stevenson, an ex-Credit Suisse trader, for attempting to
rig the price of government bonds in order to profit from the Bank
of England's quantitative easing program. He was fined £662,700
($1.1 million, 794,000 euros) for "deliberately manipulating" a
government bond, or gilt, on October 10, 2011.
(AFP, 3/21/14)

2014 Mar 21, British state
prosecutors said a London doctor and another man have become the
first people to be charged in Britain over female genital
mutilation.
(AP, 3/21/14)

2014 Mar 22, Britainís Scotland
Yard arrested three boys after Shereka Fab-Ann Marsh (15) was shot
dead in east London. On March 24 one boy (15) was charged with her
murder. The two other boys (16) were released.
(AFP, 3/23/14)(AFP, 3/24/14)

2014 Mar 24, British Judge
Jonathan Gosling Francis sentenced Paul Cullen (85), a former
Catholic priest who spent decades on the run, to 15 years in jail
for sexually abusing seven children between 1957 and 1991.
(AFP, 3/25/14)

2014 Mar 25, Royal Mail,
Britain's main postal operator, said it plans to axe 1,600 jobs
under a fresh cost-cutting program, six months after its
controversial part-privatization by the government.
(AFP, 3/25/14)

2014 Mar 26, A British
financial watchdog said it has fined Spanish banking giant Santander
almost £12.4 million for mis-advising customers.
(AFP, 3/26/14)

2014 Mar 29, Gay couples across
England and Wales said "I do" as a law authorizing same-sex marriage
came into effect at midnight, the final stage in a long fight for
equality.
(AFP, 3/29/14)
2014 Mar 29, British police
said a male nurse has been charged with the murder of three patients
who were poisoned with contaminated medical products at a hospital
in Stockport. Victorino Chua (48), a father of two children, was
charged with murdering 3 of 8 patients who died following the
poisoning at Stepping Hill hospital, in June and July 2011. On May
18, 2015, Chua was convicted of using insulin to murder two patients
and trying to poison twenty others.
(AFP, 3/29/14)(SFC, 5/19/15, p.A2)
2014 Mar 30, British actress
Kate O'Mara (74), best known for her role in the 1980s soap opera
"Dynasty," died in a nursing home in southern England after a short
illness.
(AP, 3/30/14)

2014 Apr 1, Britain said PM
David Cameron has ordered an investigation into the Muslim
Brotherhood over concerns that the group is planning radical
activities from a base in London.
(AFP, 4/1/14)

2014 Apr 2, Britain summoned
the Spanish ambassador to condemn what it called a provocative
incursion by Spanish boats into Gibraltar's territorial waters a day
earlier.
(Reuters, 4/2/14)
2014 Apr 2, British authorities
warned people with heart or lung conditions to avoid exertion as a
combination of European emissions and Sahara dust created a "perfect
storm" of pollution that blanketed the country in smog.
(AP, 4/2/14)

2014 Apr 3, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth II paid a private call on Pope Francis at the Vatican,
making him the fifth pontiff she has met.
(AP, 4/3/14)

2014 Apr 4, British police
re-arrested Domenico Rancadore in London after they received a new
arrest warrant request from Italy. The warrant alleges that the
65-year-old has an "outstanding sentence of seven years of
imprisonment to serve for participation in Mafia association" from
1987 to 1995 in Sicily.
(AP, 4/5/14)

2014 Apr 6, In London three
women from the United Arab Emirates were in hospital after being
savagely attacked in their room at the four-star Cumberland Hotel by
a man wielding a hammer. On April 8 officers arrested three men aged
56, 34 and 32 on suspicion of attempted murder following raids at
addresses in north London. A woman (31) was also arrested on
suspicion of handling stolen goods.
(AFP, 4/7/14)(AP, 4/9/14)

2014 Apr 7, Peaches Geldof
(25), the daughter of Irish musician and Band Aid founder Bob Geldof
and TV presenter Paula Yates, was pronounced dead by paramedics at
her home in Wrotham, southeast of London. On July 23 a coroner ruled
that she was a heroin addict and died of a drug overdose.
(AP, 4/8/14)(AFP, 7/23/14)

2014 Apr 8, President Michael
Higgins became the first Irish head of state to make a state visit
to Britain, crowning a big improvement in historically fraught
relations between Dublin and its former colonial master.
(Reuters, 4/8/14)

2014 Apr 9, British Culture
Secretary Maria Miller, who was in charge of legislation on press
regulation and gay marriage, resigned after an embarrassing row over
her parliamentary expense account.
(AP, 4/9/14)

2014 Apr 11, Patrick Seale
(83), a veteran journalist and author on Middle Eastern affairs as
well as one of the world's leading historians on Syria, died in
London after a battle with cancer. His books included the
authoritative biography of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad,
"Assad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East" (1988).
(AP, 4/14/14)

2014 Apr 13, Wilson Kipsang
(32) of Kenya captured his second London Marathon title by breaking
the course record by 11 seconds in 2 hours, 4 minutes, 29 seconds.
Kenya's Edna Kiplagat saw off compatriot Florence Kiplagat to win
the women's London Marathon.
(AP, 4/13/14)
2014 Apr 13, Chinese
conglomerate Sanpower said it has agreed to buy a majority stake in
British department store House of Fraser in a deal worth £480
million (578 million euros, $800 million).
(AP, 4/13/14)

2014 Apr 15, Imperial Tobacco
announced the closure of factories in Britain and France with the
loss of 900 jobs, citing declining sales, tougher anti-smoking
measures and the growth of contraband sales.
(AFP, 4/15/14)

2014 Apr 16, British food bank
operator Trussell Trust reported that the number of people in
Britain using food banks has nearly tripled to more than 900,000
over the past 12 months.
(AFP, 4/16/14)

2014 Apr 17, Debbie Vincent
(52), a former soldier who underwent a sex change, was jailed for
six years for her part in a Europe-wide campaign of intimidation
targeting a leading animal testing company. The British animal
rights activist was found guilty last month for her part in a
conspiracy to blackmail British-based Huntingdon Life Sciences
(HLS).
(AP, 4/17/14)

2014 Apr 22, London
Metropolitan Police arrested Tania Clarence (42), a graphic designer
from South Africa, after the bodies of a four-year-old girl
and two three-year-old boys were found at her home. The three
children had "life-limiting" genetic disorders.
(AFP, 4/23/14)

2014 Apr 26, British teenager
Stephen Sutton (19) broke all records on the JustGiving fundraising
website by breaking the ¬£2.5 million ($4.2 million, three million
euro) mark in donations to charity. He was diagnosed with bowel
cancer at 15, but despite surgery, the cancer spread, and doctors
concluded it was incurable.
(AFP, 4/26/14)

2014 Apr 28, Britain's Serious
Fraud Office said it had opened a criminal investigation into
possible money laundering associated with corruption in Ukraine and
had frozen $23 million of assets in the UK in relation to the case.
(Reuters, 4/29/14)
2014 Apr 28, British celebrity
publicist Max Clifford (71), one of the most influential figures in
Britain's entertainment world, was convicted of eight counts of
indecent assault on victims aged between 15 and 18 at the time of
offense in the 1970s and '80s. On May 2 he was sentenced to eight
years in prison for the string of indecent assaults on four women.
(AP, 5/2/14)
2014 Apr 28, In Britain Anne
Maguire (61), a popular Spanish teacher, was stabbed multiple times
in front of pupils at Corpus Christi Catholic College, Leeds, in
what is thought to be the first time a teacher has been fatally
stabbed in a British classroom. A male pupil (15) was arrested. On
Nov 3 Will Cornick (16) was sentenced to life in prison and ordered
to serve a minimum of 20 years.
(AFP, 4/29/14)(AFP, 11/3/14)

2014 Apr 29, US Attorney
General Eric Holder said the United States is determined to help
Ukraine find and recover billions of dollars of assets it says were
stolen by its former president and his aides. Holder spoke at the
start of a two-day international meeting in London, jointly
organized by Britain and the United States and attended by
representatives from 35 countries, which is aimed at helping
Ukraine's government recover money from President Viktor Yanukovich.
(Reuters, 4/29/14)

2014 May 2, British judge
Constance Briscoe (56) was jailed for 16 months for a catalogue of
lies and deception in a case that last year brought down government
minister Chris Huhne.
(AFP, 5/2/14)

2014 May 7, A British court
ordered former Co-operative Bank boss Paul Flowers (63), a clergyman
the media has dubbed the Crystal Methodist, to pay a fine after he
admitted to possessing cocaine, methamphetamine and ketamine.
(AP, 5/7/14)

2014 May 8, British police
officers across London will wear video cameras when responding to
emergency calls as part of a year-long pilot project launched today.
(AFP, 5/8/14)
2014 May 8, Religious leaders
in Britain called for all meat to be labelled with details of how it
was slaughtered after it emerged halal and kosher meat in
supermarkets is often not marked as such.
(AFP, 5/8/14)
2014 May 8, Colin Pillinger
(70), an ebullient British space scientist died. He captured the
popular imagination with his failed 2003 attempt to land a British
probe on Mars.
(AP, 5/8/14)

2014 May 9, British experts
arrived in Abuja to help find at least 276 girls being held by
Islamic militants in northeastern Nigeria as an international effort
began taking hold.
(AP, 5/9/14)

2014 May 14, Chinese police
said they have charged the former British boss of drugmaker
GlaxoSmithKline PLC's China business and other colleagues with
corruption, after a probe found the firm made billions of yuan from
elaborate schemes to bribe doctors and hospitals. Mark Reilly and
two Chinese executives, Zhang Guowei and Zhao Hongyan, were also
suspected of bribing officials in the industry and commerce
departments of Beijing and Shanghai.
(Reuters, 5/14/14)

2014 May 16, Four British
sailors went missing after their yacht, Cheeki Rafiki, capsized
about 1,000 miles off Cape Cod, Mass.
(Reuters, 5/19/14)

2014 May 19, A Manhattan jury
convicted Mustafa Kamel Mustafa (aka Abu Hamza al-Masri), a former
London-based Egyptian Islamic cleric, for providing material to
support terrorist organizations, for sending men to establish an
al-Qaida training camp in Bly, Oregon, and sending at least one man
to an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan. Al-Masri (56) was
extradited in 2012 from England where in the 1990s he led Londonís
Finsbury Park Mosque.
(SFC, 5/20/14, p.A8)(SFC, 5/21/14, p.A2)

2014 May 20, A British man, for
the first time, was convicted of terrorism-related offenses after
going to Syria with the intention of joining the conflict there.
Kingston Crown Court convicted Mashudur Choudhury (31) of engaging
in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts.
(AP, 5/20/14)
2014 May 20, Prince Rupert
Loewenstein (80), former business manager of the Rolling Stones
(1968-2007), died in a London hospital after suffering from
Parkinson's disease. He was the prince who helped make the Rolling
Stones as rich as kings.
(AP, 5/22/14)

2014 May 22, Britain voted in
local and European elections. An opinion poll exposed a paradox: The
anti-EU UK Independence Party was forecast to win the vote yet
public opinion favored staying inside the EU.
(Reuters, 5/22/14)
2014 May 22, EU parliamentary
elections began in Britain and the Netherlands at the start of 4
days of balloting across the 28 members.
(SFC, 5/23/14, p.A5)

2014 May 30, Britainís Office
of National Statistics said prostitution and the import, manufacture
and consumption of illegal drugs will be counted when making the
quarterly calculations of the gross domestic product (GDP).
(SFC, 5/31/14, p.A3)

2014 May 31, The Queen musical
"We Will Rock You" closed in its London home after 12 straight
years. It had played to more than 6.5 million people at the Dominion
Theatre with over 4,600 performances.
(AFP, 3/11/14)

2014 May, Wiko, a 2-year-old
French company, introduced its smartphone in Britain. Prices in
France started at about Ä70 ($96).
(Econ, 4/5/14, p.57)

2014 Jun 3, British police
arrested Altaf Hussain (60), one of Pakistan's most well-known and
divisive politicians, on suspicion of money-laundering, sparking
fears of violence in his power base of Karachi where businesses
closed early and residents rushed home. Hussain, the leader of the
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), has lived in self-imposed exile in
Britain since 1992. Hussain was released on bail on June 7.
(AP, 6/3/14)(AP, 6/7/14)

2014 Jun 6, British
telecommunications giant Vodafone admitted the existence of secret
wires that allow government agencies to listen in to conversations
on its networks. Vodafone said that in about six countries where it
operates, phone tapping is required by law, although it did not
identify the countries.
(AFP, 6/6/14)

2014 Jun 11, Londonís new
Trafficking and Kidnap Unit of its Metropolitan Police
arrested six people suspected of sex trafficking. The arrests were
part of an ongoing investigation of a Hungarian organized crime
group.
(AP, 6/11/14)
2014 Jun 11, Taxi drivers
staged protests in London, Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid and Paris.
Cabbies and train workers walked off the job, leaving traffic
snarled, as they protested changes to the travel industry that they
say could endanger passengers and give untested upstarts an unfair
advantage.
(AP, 6/11/14)

2014 Jun 16, Britain said it
would ban the Sunni Islamist insurgent group the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), whose stunning offensive in northern
Iraq in the past week has spurred fears of all-out sectarian warfare
in the Middle East.
(AP, 6/16/14)
2014 Jun 16, Britain's food
safety watchdog said you should not wash a chicken before cooking
it, because washing raw chicken spreads the campylobacter bacteria.
(AFP, 6/16/14)
2014 Jun 16, Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang arrived in Britain on a 3-day visit that included a planned
meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and talks aimed at boosting fragile
diplomatic relations.
(AP, 6/16/14)

2014 Jun 17, In England a
unanimous jury decision at Birmingham Crown Court found two
Singaporean businessmen and a footballer guilty of involvement in a
match-fixing conspiracy targeting English lower league games.
(AP, 6/17/14)
2014 Jun 17, Chinese premier Li
Keqiang began his visit to Britain with a meeting with Queen
Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. He then traveled to central London
for a formal inspection of British soldiers and a meeting with PM
David Cameron at his office in Downing Street. Mr Li, who was
accompanied by a large business delegation, formally agreed during
the trip to commercial deals and investments worth £14bn ($24
billion) in areas such as energy and finance.
(AP, 6/17/14)(Econ, 7/19/14, p.11)
2014 Jun 17, In England Nahid
Almanea (31), a Saudi student, died after she was stabbed 16 times
while walking on a public path in Colchester, northeast of London.
She was wearing a full-length Muslim robe and a headscarf and had
been studying English as part of an advanced degree program.
(AP, 6/20/14)

2014 Jun 20, A British husband
and wife were convicted of murdering the woman's parents, burying
their bodies and collecting their pension checks for 15 years. A
jury at Nottingham Crown Court found Susan and Christopher Edwards
guilty of shooting William and Patricia Wycherly in May 1998.
(AP, 6/20/14)

2014 Jun 22, British newspaper
The Sunday Times reported that the 25 board members of FIFA, the
international governing body of association football, futsal and
beach soccer, now get a $200,000 stipend for their part-time duties.
FIFA declined to comment on claims that annual payments were doubled
for executive committee members after their bonuses were stopped
last December.
(AP, 6/22/14)
2014 Jun 22, Felix Dennis (67),
British hedonist and media magnate, died. His 20,000 hectare Forest
of Dennis included a garden of heroes with life-size statues of
famous figures.
(Econ, 7/5/14, p.78)

2014 Jun 24, Britain became the
latest nation to formally outlaw the herbal stimulant khat, the
bushy leaf chewed by many Somalis, Yemenis, Kenyans and Ethiopians.
As of today khat is a "class C drug", making possession punishable
by up to two years in jail and supply and production punishable by
up to 14 years.
(AFP, 6/24/14)
2014 Jun 24, Two powerful
British political insiders met starkly different fates as former
News of the World editor Andy Coulson was convicted of phone hacking
but fellow editor Rebekah Brooks was acquitted.
(AP, 6/24/14)

2014 Jun 25, Britain's Supreme
Court said an assisted-suicide ban is incompatible with human
rights, but it dismissed the appeal from two severely disabled men
who argued the law should be changed to allow doctors to legally
kill them.
(AP, 6/25/14)

2014 Jun 27, British
authorities ordered Eurotunnel to stop running its ferry service to
France on grounds of unfair competition.
(AFP, 6/27/14)
2014 Jun 27, German travel
group TUI and its British subsidiary TUI Travel said that they had
agreed to a tie-up that will create the world's biggest tourism
operator.
(AFP, 6/27/14)

2014 Jul 2, Britain sentenced
five members of a gang to between three and 12 years in prison for
luring victims with false promises of legitimate work. The organizer
and Indian national Vishal Chaudhary (35), received 12 years. Over
120 eastern European women were forced to have sex with up to 20 men
a day in brothels across London.
(AP, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 2, London Metropolitan
Police expressed disappointment about an employment tribunal's
finding that police discriminated against a black female officer
because of her gender and race.
(AP, 7/2/14)
2014 Jul 2, Norwegian energy
companies Statoil and Statkraft announced plans to build a wind farm
off the British coast in a 15 billion kroner ($2.4 billion)
investment, expected to be completed in 2017.
(AP, 7/2/14)

2014 Jul 4, In London Andy
Coulson (46), former News of the World editor and PM David Cameron's
communications chief, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for
conspiring to hack phones. Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, the
newspaper's chief phone hacker, received a suspended six-month
sentence.
(AP, 7/4/14)
2014 Jul 4, In London
television entertainer Rolf Harris, who for decades cultivated an
image of the affectionate uncle with numerous children's television
programs, was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison for
a string of abuses against young girls.
(AP, 7/4/14)

2014 Jul 5, England began
hosting the first three stages of the three-week Tour de
France race before it enters France.
(AP, 7/6/14)

2014 Jul 14, British PM David
Cameron announced an investment of £1.1 billion (1.38 billion euros,
$1.88 billion) into the armed forces, the bulk of it on intelligence
and surveillance equipment.
(AFP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 14, The British
government faced a call to impose legal caps on executive salaries
after a study found top pay in Britain has reached 180 times average
wages.
(AFP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 14, The Church of
England voted overwhelmingly in favor of allowing women to become
bishops.
(SFC, 7/15/14, p.A3)

2014 Jul 15, British PM David
Cameron pushed through his biggest government shake-up since coming
to power in 2010, promoting women and Eurosceptics to senior roles
ahead of a national election in May, 2015.
(Reuters, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 15, Britain's
financial regulator announced new limitations on what payday lenders
can charge their customers. From January payday loan rates must not
exceed a daily rate of 0.8 percent of the amount borrowed. Customers
must never have to pay back more in fees and interest than the
amount borrowed.
(AP, 7/15/14)

2014 Jul 17, Airbus said that
its orders and commitments for 496 aircraft at Englandís Farnborough
International Airshow. Boeing, meanwhile, secured business for 201
airplanes.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, Japan said it
would join forces with Britain to jointly develop missile technology
for fighter jets, while also moving to export Japanese-made parts
for US surface-to-air missiles.
(AFP, 7/17/14)

2014 Jul 24, The first archive
dedicated to the culture and experiences of black people in Britain
opened in Brixton, south London, with the aim of shining a light on
a long overlooked history.
(AFP, 7/25/14)

2014 Jul 28, Britainís Passport
Office staff launched a 24-hour strike over staffing shortages and
pay just weeks after extra workers were drafted in to tackle a
backlog of tens of thousands of applications.
(AFP, 7/28/14)

2014 Jul, In Bristol, England,
seven men aged 20 to 22 were convicted of charges including rape,
paying for the sexual services of a child, facilitating child
prostitution, possessing indecent pictures of a child and supplying
heroin and cocaine.
(AP, 11/27/14)

2014 Aug 1, Britain's
state-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland said it has capped lending in
Russia after the imposition this week of new economic sanctions
against Moscow linked to the Ukraine crisis.
(AFP, 8/1/14)

2014 Aug 12, Britain said it
will send Chinook helicopters to help refugees trapped in northern
Iraq, particularly on Mount Sinjar.
(Reuters, 8/12/14)

2014 Aug 16, At Britainís
Tilbury Docks one man was found dead and 34 others still alive in a
shipping container after staff at the port heard banging and
screaming coming from inside. The men, women and children, were all
from Afghanistan. On Aug 19 Northern Ireland police arrested a man
(34) in Limavady suspected of smuggling the migrants.
(AFP, 8/16/14)(SFC, 8/20/14, p.A2)

2014 Aug 26, A new report by
Alexis Jay, a former chief social work adviser to the Scottish
government, concluded that from 1997-2013 some 1,400 children were
sexually exploited in Rotherham, northern England.
(AP, 8/26/14)

2014 Aug 27, Britain's
bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland was fined £14 million for not
taking enough care to explain to home-buyers the costs of taking out
a mortgage.
(AFP, 8/27/14)

2014 Aug 28, Alice Gross (14)
was last seen in the Ealing and Hanwell area of west London. Her
body was found in the River Brent on Sep 30. Arnis Zalkalns (41) of
Latvia, a suspect in her disappearance, was last sighted on Sep 3.
His body was found in Boston Manor Park on Oct 4.
(AP, 9/22/14)(AP, 10/5/14)

2014 Sep 13, The Islamic State
released a video showing the beheading of British subject David
Haines and threatening the life of another British hostage.
(AFP, 9/14/14)

2014 Sep 15, In Thailand
British tourists Hannah Witheridge (23), and David Miller (24) were
found battered to death on a beach on Koh Tao, a small island in the
Gulf of Thailand. An autopsy indicated that Witheridge had been
raped. On Oct 2 police said two workers from Myanmar have confessed
to the murders. On Oct 21 Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin, both 21, sent a
retraction letter to prosecutors handling their case claiming they
were tortured and forced to confess under police custody. On Dec 24,
2015, Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin were sentenced to death.
(AP, 9/15/14)(AP, 10/2/14)(AP, 10/22/14)(AP,
12/24/15)

2014 Sep 18, Scotland voted on
whether to stay within the United Kingdom or end the 307-year-old
union with England and become an independent nation.
(Reuters, 9/18/14)

2014 Sep 22, Britainís Tesco
supermarket chain had to issue its third profit warning in two years
as it struggled to compete with low-cost rivals. The company said it
has suspended four executives and launched an accounting
investigation after admitting that its half-year profit was
overstated by 250 million pounds ($407 million).
(AP, 9/22/14)

2014 Sep 24, Deborah Devonshire
(94), the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire and the youngest of the six
Mitford sisters, died.
(Econ, 10/4/14, p.102)

2014 Sep 25, British police
arrested nine men as part of an operation into Islamist-related
militancy. Anjem Choudar, the country's most high-profile radical
Muslim preacher, was among those held.
(Reuters, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 25, In London Dale
Bolinger (59), an NHS nurse dubbed the "Canterbury Cannibal", was
found guilty of attempting to meet a girl under the age of 16
following sexual grooming. He had plotted to behead and eat the girl
and was jailed for nine years.
(AFP, 9/25/14)

2014 Oct 1, Britain awarded
contracts worth ¬£3.2 billion to support the management of the
nation's naval bases and upkeep of the fleet.
(AFP, 10/1/14)

2014 Oct 3, In London Ian
Edmondson, a former news editor at Britain's News of the World,
pleaded guilty to conspiring to hack the phones of celebrities,
politicians and royals.
(AP, 10/3/14)
2014 Oct 3, A video was posted
on YouTube showing Alan Henning (47), a British taxi driver,
kneeling before a masked knife man against a desert setting. Henning
had been part of an aid convoy taking medical supplies to a hospital
in northwest Syria in December last year when it was stopped by
gunmen and he was abducted. He was the fourth hostage to have been
beheaded by Islamic State (IS).
(Reuters, 10/4/14)

2014 Oct 4, Several hundred
people marched in central London to protest Britain's involvement in
US-led air strikes against Islamic State (IS) group targets in Iraq.
(AFP, 10/4/14)

2014 Oct 6, Richard Branson's
Virgin Atlantic said it will shut its short-haul domestic service in
Britain, partly owing to a lack of demand for connections with its
long-haul operations.
(AFP, 10/6/14)

2014 Oct 9, Britain said it
will start screening travelers coming from Ebola-hit parts of west
Africa at Heathrow and Gatwick airports and on Eurostar trains from
Belgium and France.
(AFP, 10/10/14)

2014 Oct 10, Britain's anti-EU
UK Independence Party won its first seat in the House of Commons,
sending jitters through PM David Cameron's Conservatives months
before what is likely to be a tight general election.
(AFP, 10/10/14)

2014 Oct 13, The British House
of Commons in a symbolic move voted 274 to 12 in favor of
recognizing Palestine as a state.
(SFC, 10/14/14, p.A2)

2014 Oct 14, British
counterterrorism police arrested six people in raids across southern
England reflecting heightened concern that the rise of the Islamic
State has helped foment Jihadism.
(SFC, 10/15/14, p.A2)

2014 Oct 21, The tail end of
Hurricane Gonzalo brought high winds and travel chaos to Britain.
One woman was found dead under a fallen tree in west London.
(AFP, 10/21/14)

2014 Oct 23, The chairman of
Britain's biggest retailer Tesco resigned as the troubled
supermarket group said a huge accounting error began earlier than
thought and contributed to plunging profits.
(AFP, 10/23/14)
2014 Oct 23, Alvin Stardust
(b.1942), British singer and former glam rock star, died after a
short battle with cancer, just weeks before he was due to release a
new album. His real name was Bernard Jewry.
(AFP, 10/23/14)

2014 Oct 25, Jack Bruce (71),
British vocalist and bassist for the blues trio Cream, died at his
home in Suffolk. The group also included drummer Ginger Baker and
guitarist Eric Clapton. Cream the worldís first platinum disc for
the double album ďWheels of Fire" (1968).
(SSFC, 10/26/14, p.D8)

2014 Oct 26, British troops
ended their combat operations in Afghanistan as they and US Marines
handed over two huge adjacent bases in Helmand province to the
Afghan military. Helmand province produces 80-90 percent of the
opium that helps finance the Taliban's insurgency.
(Reuters, 10/26/14)

2014 Oct 27, In Afghanistan the
last British troops were flown out of Camp Bastion in Helmand
province. 453 of their compatriots had died during Britainís 13-year
deployment.
(Econ, 11/1/14, p.55)

2014 Oct 28, The European Court
of Human Rights in London ruled that Stephen Goughís rights were not
violated by repeated arrests and convictions for being naked in
public. Gough (55), a former Royal Marine nicknamed the ďNaked
Rambler," has twice walked the length of Britain naked with frequent
arrests, court appearances and jail time.
(SFC, 10/29/14, p.A2)

2014 Oct 30, Britainís first
national sperm bank opened to the public in Birmingham.
(Econ, 11/1/14, p.55)

2014 Nov 4, Britainís
Rolls-Royce, the maker of aircraft engines, said that it plans to
shed 2,600 jobs, mainly at its aerospace division, over the next 18
months to cut costs.
(AFP, 11/4/14)

2014 Nov 7, In London Ian
Edmondson (45), a former news editor at the News of the World, was
jailed for eight months after admitting involvement in phone hacking
at Rupert Murdoch's now defunct tabloid newspaper.
(AP, 11/7/14)
2014 Nov 7, The EU said Britain
will have to pay only around 1 billion euros, rather than more than
2 billion, more to the European Union budget as a result of a
Europe-wide revision of statistics, because the British rebate will
also increase.
(Reuters, 11/7/14)

2014 Nov 11, Thai police banned
a British journalist's book about politics in Thailand for
"defaming" the monarchy, in a country with one of the world's
strictest lese majeste laws. The sale and distribution of "A Kingdom
in Crisis" by freelance journalist and author Andrew MacGregor
Marshall, formerly based in Bangkok, was banned in Thailand a month
after it was published by London-based Zed Books.
(AFP, 11/13/14)

2014 Nov 12, British police
arrested 13 people in the Manchester area in an investigation of an
alleged trafficking ring which tricked women into visiting Britain,
then sold them into forced marriages.
(AP, 11/13/14)

2014 Nov 13, A British woman,
Amal El-Wahabi (28), who tried to send 20,000 euros ($25,000) to her
husband fighting with Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, was jailed
for 28 months and seven days.
(AFP, 11/13/14)
2014 Nov 13, Eight northern
European nations (Britain, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia,
Lithuania, Norway, Sweden) agreed to step up cooperation to counter
an increase in Moscow's military activity that has included a
tripling of NATO intercepts of Russian jets this year.
(Reuters, 11/13/14)

2014 Nov 17, British jurors
were dismissed after law student Erol Incedal (26), a Turkish-born
Londoner accused of targeting Tony Blair and plotting a Mumbai-style
attack, was found guilty in a secret trial at the Old Bailey of
possessing material likely to be useful to a terrorist.
Co-defendant, Mounir Rarmoul-Bouhadjar (26) had pleaded guilty
before the trial began to having the same bomb-making document.
(AP, 11/17/14)

2014 Nov 18, British lawmakers
in parliament's lower House of Commons voted to overhaul the
400-year-old "beer tie", under which publicans purchase alcohol
exclusively from their parent company in return for reduced rent.
(AFP, 11/19/14)

2014 Nov 19, The British
government banned controversial US-based "pick-up artist" Julien
Blanc from entering the country after nearly 160,000 people signed a
petition accusing him of encouraging "physical and emotional abuse".
(AFP, 11/19/14)
2014 Nov 19, Several thousand
students took to the streets of central London to protest against
tuition fee increases and education budget cuts.
(AP, 11/19/14)

2014 Nov 20, British regulators
fined Royal Bank of Scotland PLC 56 million pounds ($87 million) for
computer problems that made it impossible for customers to get
access to their accounts.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Britain's first
bus powered entirely by human and food waste took to the road in
Bristol. The Wessex Water subsidiary GENeco's Bristol sewage
treatment plant became the first in the UK to start providing gas
generated from food waste and sewage to the national gas grid
network.
(AFP, 11/20/14)

2014 Nov 21, Britainís PM David
Cameron's Conservatives lost a second parliamentary seat in the
southeast English constituency of Rochester and Strood to the
anti-EU UKIP party.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 21, In central London
two Polish nationals died on a construction site while trying to
lift a sofa into a first floor apartment. On July 7, 2014, Martin
Gutaj (44), a company director, was sentenced to 14 months in jail
and barred from being a company director for the next four years for
failing to properly train the two workers.
(AP, 7/7/17)

2014 Nov 24, Thousands of
British nurses, midwives and hospital cleaners went on a four-hour
strike calling for a pay rise, weeks after walking out for the first
time in 32 years.
(AFP, 11/24/14)

2014 Nov 27, Britainís Food
Standards Agency (FSA) said some 70 percent of fresh chickens on
sale in Britain are contaminated with a food poisoning bug.
(AFP, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 27, Britain's main
political parties agreed to grant Scotland new tax and spending
powers to fulfill a promise of greater autonomy made as politicians
scrambled to persuade Scots to reject independence in a recent
referendum.
(AP, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 27, The BBC reported
that billionaire hedge fund manager Chris Hohn has been ordered to
pay his estranged wife Jamie Cooper-Hohn 337 million pounds ($530
million) in one of the largest divorce settlements in British legal
history.
(Reuters, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 27, British police
arrested Lithuanian builder Viktoras Bruzas (38) after two people
were stabbed to death in Surrey. Another man in his 30s has been
arrested in Walton-on-Thames on suspicion on conspiracy to commit
murder.
(AFP, 11/27/14)(AFP, 11/28/14)
2014 Nov 27, British detective
writer P. D. James (b.1920) died at home in Oxford. She created the
best-selling series featuring poetry-writing sleuth Adam Dalgliesh.
Her first novel, "Cover Her Face," was published in 1962.
(AFP, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 27, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber attacked a British embassy vehicle in Kabul, killing
5 people including one Briton.
(Reuters, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 27, Argentina's tax
agency charged British bank HSBC with helping more than 4,000
Argentines to commit tax evasion by stashing money in secret Swiss
accounts.
(AFP, 11/27/14)

2014 Nov 28, Britain sentenced
7 Somali men for charges including rape, sexual activity with a
child, causing or inciting child prostitution and trafficking for
sexual exploitation, relating to four victims.
(AFP, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 28, British police
blasted stores for bringing "Black Friday" to Britain, with the US
sales event descending into chaotic fist fights as frenzied
consumers battled to grab discounted goods.
(AFP, 11/28/14)
2014 Nov 28, British scientists
announced trials on a 15-minute Ebola test in Guinea as France's
Francois Hollande arrived in Conakry, becoming the first Western
leader to visit one of the countries devastated by the epidemic.
France has pledged 100 million euros ($125 million) in the fight
against the epidemic focusing its efforts on Guinea.
(AFP, 11/28/14)

2014 Nov 29, The British
government reported that up to 13,000 people in Britain are victims
of trafficking, sexual exploitation or other forms of modern
slavery.
(AP, 11/29/14)

2014 Dec 3, Britainís Treasury
chief George Osborne unveiled plans to crack down on multinational
tax avoiders as he sought to deflect criticism for failing to meet
his budget targets.
(AP, 12/3/14)

2014 Dec 5, The British Museum
plunged into a geopolitical tempest by lending one of the disputed
Greek Elgin Marbles to Russiaís Hermitage Museum.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A2)

2014 Dec 6, Bahrain and
Britain said they planned to open a new military camp in Bahrain.
This would be Britainís 1st permanent camp in the Middle East region
since it officially pulled out from the area in 1971.
(http://tinyurl.com/lz2apn3)

2014 Dec 8, The body of British
financier Scot Young (52) was found impaled on railings outside his
luxury London apartment. During a drawn-out divorce court battle,
Young claimed he was bankrupt and couldn't pay his wife a
27,500-pound monthly maintenance fee ordered by a judge. He said he
had suffered a financial "meltdown" and was heavily in debt.
(AP, 12/11/14)
2014 Dec 8, Angela Wrightson
(39), was found with more than 100 injuries in her blood-spattered
living room in the British industrial town of Hartlepool. On April
7, 2016, two teenage girls, who beat the woman to death, were
sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 15 years.
(www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35924491)(AP,
4/7/16)

2014 Dec 9, London's New
Scotland Yard, the world's most famous police headquarters, was
reported sold to the Abu Dhabi Financial Group for 370 million
pounds ($580 million), 120 million pounds over the asking price. The
Gulf investors plan to develop luxury apartments. The Metropolitan
Police was moving to a smaller headquarters as it tries to cut more
than 500 million pounds ($800 million) in spending.
(AP, 12/9/14)

2014 Dec 10, The British
Scouting Association apologized after revealing that 48 sexual abuse
lawsuits had been made since the movement started in 1907, 36 of
which had been brought since October 2012.
(AFP, 12/11/14)
2014 Dec 10, A group of Gambian
diplomats were jailed after being found guilty of running a huge
tax-dodging tobacco operation out of the Gambian embassy in London.
Yusupha Bojang (54), was identified as the ringleader of the
operation, ordering half-a-million packets of tax-free rolling
tobacco over three years and selling it out of the west London
building.
(AFP, 12/10/14)
2014 Dec 10, Up to 17,000
residents in the west of Scotland were left without power as a
"weather bomb" of wet and windy conditions battered parts of Britain
with gusts expected to reach up to 80 miles per hour.
(Reuters, 12/10/14)

2014 Dec 11, Britain's Scout
Association was warned that sexual abuse claims that have led to
payouts of £500,000 were only the "tip of the iceberg."
(AFP, 12/11/14)
2014 Dec 11, In London
Aravindan Balakrishnan (74), the leader of an obscure Maoist
collective, was charged with false imprisonment, rape, cruelty to a
person under 16 years old and indecent assault. He allegedly held
three women, freed last year, against their will in a London house
for 30 years.
(AP, 12/11/14)
2014 Dec 11, In Vienna,
Austria, several states (Britain, Norway, Netherlands and the US)
pledged to back a UN nuclear agency (IAEA) request for 4.6 million
euros ($5.7 million) as soon as possible to pay for its monitoring
of an extended, interim nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
(AP, 12/11/14)

2014 Dec 12, In Britain a
system failure affecting air traffic control workstations was to
blame for disruption to thousands of passengers coming in and out of
Britain's biggest airports.
(Reuters, 12/13/14)

2014 Dec 16, A British jury
cleared three security guards of manslaughter in the 2010 death of
Jimmy Mubenga (46), an Angolan man, who collapsed while being
deported.
(AP, 12/16/14)

2014 Dec 17, The Church of
England named Libby Lane, a saxophone-playing vicar with a taste for
football, as its first female bishop in a move hailed as an
important step towards greater equality.
(AFP, 12/17/14)

2014 Dec 18, The EU's top court
found Britain at fault for demanding that non-EU citizens with
resident permits issued in other member states must obtain a visa
before entering the country.
(AFP, 12/18/14)
2014 Dec 18, Mandy Rice-Davies
(70), a key figure in the 1963 "Profumo Affair," a sex-and-politics
scandal that rocked Cold War Britain, died.
(AP, 12/19/14)

2014 Dec 21, British actress
Billie Whitelaw (82), who collaborated closely with Irish playwright
Samuel Beckett and appeared on stage and screen for decades, died in
a London nursing home. She made more than 50 movies, including
Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy" in 1972.
(AP, 12/22/14)

2014 Dec 27, Snow and icy
weather swept through parts of Europe, stranding drivers overnight
and leaving thousands of homes without power in Britain.
(AP, 12/27/14)

2014 Dec 29, Health worker
Pauline Cafferkey (39) became the first person diagnosed with Ebola
on British soil. She had returned a day earlier from Sierra Leone.
(SSFC, 1/4/15, p.A2)
2014 Dec 29, In Florida a
motion was filed in which a woman, Jane Doe #3, alleges she was
"forced to have sexual relations" with Andrew, the Duke of York, in
London, New York and the Caribbean at the behest of Jeffrey Epstein
from 1999-2002. In 2008 Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in prison
after pleading guilty to a single Florida state charge of soliciting
prostitution. He remains a registered sex offender.
(AFP, 1/3/15)

2014 Nick Bostrom, professor of
philosophy at Oxford, authored ďSuperintelligence: Paths, Dangers,
Strategies," an examination of artificial intelligence. Here he asks
the question: What happens when machines surpass humans in general
intelligence?
(Econ, 8/9/14, p.68)(http://tinyurl.com/j2oc2cx)
2014 Innes Bowen authored
ďMedina in Birmingham, Najaf in Brent: Inside British Islam.
(Econ, 6/28/14, p.74)
2014 Ronald Hutton authored
ďPagan Britain." The author described the book as a history of
religious belief from the ďOld Stone Age to the coming of
Christianity."
(Econ, 12/14/13, p.89)
2014 Allen Lane authored ďThe
English and Their History."
(Econ, 12/13/14, p.82)

2015 Jan 8, The Pentagon said
the US military will close a major air base in Britain and withdraw
from more than a dozen installations across Europe as part of a
reorganization of forces.
(AFP, 1/8/15)

2015 Jan 12, British author
John Bayley (89) died of a heart ailment. His "Elegy for Iris"
(1999) chronicled his wife's descent into Alzheimer's Disease and
was turned into an Oscar-winning movie starring Judi Dench and Jim
Broadbent.
(AP, 1/22/15)

2015 Jan 13, Britain launched a
trade mission to Egypt with more than 40 companies received in
Cairo, the largest such effort in over a decade by the top foreign
investor in the Arab world's most populous country.
(AP, 1/13/15)

2015 Jan 21, British technology
firm Satellite Applications Catapult launched a new satellite
tracking system aiming to crack down on the industrial-scale theft
known as "pirate fishing." Experts will be able to watch satellite
feeds of the waters around Easter Island, a Chilean territory in the
southeastern Pacific Ocean, and the western Pacific island nation of
Palau.
(Reuters, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, British politician
Leon Brittan (75), a trusted minister under Margaret Thatcher and
former European commissioner, died. Brittan was recently caught up
in accusations that, while interior minister, he covered up a report
into an alleged pedophile ring involving MPs and prominent public
figures.
(AFP, 1/22/15)

2015 Jan 22, In Britain a
topless model appeared on the Sunís third page, after an absence of
several days sparked reports that the controversial feature had been
dropped.
(AP, 1/22/15)

2015 Jan 26, The Church of
England ended centuries of male-only leadership as Libby Lane became
its first female bishop in a ceremony briefly disrupted by a
traditionalist priest's protest.
(AFP, 1/26/15)

2015 Feb 3, British lawmakers
in the House of Commons voted to allow scientists to create babies
from the DNA of three people, a move that could prevent some
children from inheriting potentially fatal diseases from their
mothers.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Martin Gilbert
(78), Winston Churchill's official biographer and a leading
historian of the Holocaust, died following a lengthy illness. His 80
books included eight on the Holocaust as well as a three-volume
"History of the 20th Century."
(AP, 2/4/15)

2015 Feb 6, British jihadi
Imran Khawaja (27), who joined a terrorist training camp in Syria
then faked his death in an attempt to sneak back to England, was
sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(AP, 2/6/15)

2015 Feb 12, England and Wales
passed a new law banning "revenge porn" -- sexually explicit images
shared online by a former partner without their ex's consent. The
devolved governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland, which have
responsibility for justice matters, are also looking at introducing
similar laws.
(AFP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, Steve Strange
(55), a singer with the British band Visage and one of the founders
of the 1980s' New Romantic style, died in a hospital in the Egyptian
Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 12, Oliver Rackham
(75), British plant pathologist and woodland archeologist, died. His
last book, ďThe Ash Tree," was written in response to the outbreak
of the Chalara fungus.
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.94)

2015 Feb 15, Musical Miss
Saigon swept the board at the What's on Stage theatre awards in
London's West End, where it won nine awards.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 15, HSBC, Britain's
largest bank, issued a public apology, describing the media
firestorm that followed allegations it helped rich clients dodge
taxes as painful and insisting it has changed the way it does
business.
(AP, 2/15/15)

2015 Feb 17, Three British
girls (Kadiza Sultana (16) and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira
Abase) flew from London to Turkey in a suspected bid to join the
Islamic State group. On March 12 Turkey announced the arrest of an
agent who helped the girls cross into Syria. The agent also worked
as a courier to transfer money to jihadists.
(SSFC, 2/22/15, p.A5)(AP, 3/15/15)(AFP, 3/15/15)

2015 Feb 18, Swiss authorities
raided the offices of British banking giant HSBC's Swiss unit as
part of a money laundering probe into the bank that has been accused
of helping clients to dodge millions of dollars in taxes.
(AFP, 2/18/15)

2015 Feb 19, British teenager
Brusthom Ziamani (19) was found guilty of plotting to behead a
soldier in London after being influenced by the murder of an Afghan
war veteran who was hacked to death by two Islamists in the capital
a year earlier. Ziamani was arrested last August carrying a 12-inch
(30-cm) knife and a hammer, wrapped in a black Islamic flag.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, British teenager
Becky Watts was last seen at home in Bristol, and her disappearance
sparked a huge "Find Becky" campaign. On Feb 28 a 28-year-old man
and a 21-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping
Watts. On Mar 3 police said they had found body parts at an address
in Bristol.
(AFP, 3/3/15)
2015 Feb 19, The website
Intercept posted documents saying the US National Security Agency
(NSA) and Britainís GCHQ had hacked into the networks of Gemalto, a
SIM card maker, to steal codes allowing them to seamlesslessly
eavesdrop on mobile phones worldwide.
(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 19, The French victim
of a racist incident, involving Chelsea soccer fans in the Paris
metro on Feb 17, lodged an official complaint with police. He had
not initially know the incident had been filmed and widely
broadcast.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A2)

2015 Feb 20, A British court
overturned a previous ruling that prison overcrowding in Italy could
breach his human rights allowing convicted Sicilian mafioso Domenico
Rancadore (65) to be extradited. He had spent two decades living
incognito in Britain.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)

2015 Feb 23, Two British former
foreign ministers, Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind, were suspended
from their parties after claims that they offered to use their
positions to help a private company for cash in an undercover
investigation.
(AFP, 2/23/15)

2015 Feb 24, In Britain
Conservative Party lawmaker Malcolm Rifkind quit as head of the
parliamentary committee overseeing the intelligence services and
announced his retirement after being caught in a hidden-camera sting
operation appearing to discuss swapping political influence for
money.
(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)

2015 Feb 26, ďJihadi John," a
member of the Islamic State and the beheader of at least 5 Western
hostages, was identified as a British Islamist named Mohammed
Emwazi. He first appeared in a video last August, when he apparently
killed the US journalist James Foley.
(www.bbc.com/news/uk-31637090)(Econ., 3/7/15,
p.59)

2015 Feb 27, Britain and France
dismissed any suggestion of restoring relations with Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad, saying this would likely end all hope of
a political transition and push moderates into the arms of radical
Islamist groups.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Former British pop
star Gary Glitter (70), aka Paul Gadd, received a 16-year prison
sentence after being convicted of sexually abusing three young girls
in the 1970s.
(AP, 2/27/15)

2015 Mar 2, British police said
they had charged 10 men with sexual offences against children and
adults, part of a wider investigation into child sexual exploitation
in the northern English town of Rochdale.
(Reuters, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Motorists in
England and Wales faced tougher penalties for driving under the
influence of drugs as new laws took effect. Drivers will be
prosecuted if they are caught exceeding new legal limits for eight
illegal drugs and eight prescription drugs.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Konstandinos Erik
Scurfield (25), a former Royal Marine, died in a battle with IS
militants, becoming the first Briton to be killed while fighting
with Kurdish forces battling Islamic State jihadists in Syria.
(AFP, 3/4/15)

2015 Mar 4, The BBC aired the
documentary ďIndiaís Daughter," about a fatal New Delhi gang rape in
which one attacker blamed the victim. A court order in India had
halted a March 1 screening.
(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 4, The British
government said it has agreed to sell its stake in Eurostar, the
high-speed rail service that connects London with Paris and Brussels
through a tunnel under the English Channel, for 757 million pounds
($1.1 billion) to a group of international investors, Canada's
Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and U.K.-based Hermes
Infrastructure.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, British
counter-terrorism police arrested two men over an alleged
"cash-for-jihad" fraud that saw elderly residents conned of money by
fake police officers.
(AP, 3/4/15)

2015 Mar 5, Mexico's President
Enrique Pena Nieto ended his three-day state visit to Britain by
overseeing the signing of deals that boost ties between the two
countries in energy, including a $1 billion oil agreement.
(AFP, 3/5/15)

2015 Mar 11, Britainís 2015
Templeton Prize went to Canadian Jean Vanier, who founded the
pioneering global network of "L'Arche" residential communities for
people with and without mental disabilities. The prize, established
in 1972, honors "entrepreneurs of the spirit".
(AFP, 3/11/15)

2015 Mar 12, British science
fiction and fantasy author Terry Pratchett (66) died. His 40
Discworld novels made him Britainís bestselling author in the 1990s.
By 2015 he sold some 85 million books in 37 languages.
(AFP, 3/12/15)(Econ., 3/28/15, p.94)

2015 Mar 13, In Turkey three
male British teenagers planning to join Islamic State militants in
Syria were detained in Istanbul.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)

2015 Mar 14, In London a statue
of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled at
Parliament Square, the symbolic heart of the British establishment
that once loathed him for his campaign against imperial rule.
(AFP, 3/14/15)

2015 Mar 17, Britain announced
a three percent rise in the minimum wage, the largest real terms
increase since 2008.
(AFP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, British officials
said three judges who looked at pornography on their work accounts
have been fired. A fourth judge who was also found to have viewed
similar material at work resigned before the inquiry had concluded.
(AP, 3/17/15)

2015 Mar 19, Officials said
around 30 British military personnel have arrived in Ukraine to
provide medical and tactical training to the country's troops.
(AP, 3/19/15)

2015 Mar 22, A Turkish
opposition lawmaker said he is helping the families of nine British
medical students and doctors of Sudanese origin believed to have
crossed into Syria from Turkey.
(AP, 3/22/15)(AFP, 3/22/15)

2015 Mar 26, Britain buried
King Richard III with pomp 530 years after his violent death. His
remains had been found under a parking lot in 2012.
(SFC, 3/27/15, p.A2)

2015 Mar, The British
government set aside 834,000 square km (322,000 square miles) of
ocean for the Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve, the largest single
marine protected area anywhere.
(Econ, 2/13/15, p.84)

2015 Apr 6, London's jewelry
industry found that thieves had got away with a record haul of
diamonds after a brazen heist in Hatton Garden netted an estimated
¬£200 million worth (275 million euro, $300 million) of gems over
the Easter weekend. On Jan 14, 2016, Carl Wood (58) of Cheshunt,
William Lincoln (60) of Bethnal Green, were convicted of conspiracy
to burgle. Hugh Doyle (52) of Enfield, was convicted of concealing,
converting or transferring criminal property. Altogether six men
between the ages of 49 and 77 were convicted of tunneling into the
vault.
(AFP, 4/8/15)(http://tinyurl.com/j9acfjh)(SFC,
1/15/16, p.A2)(AP, 1/6/17)

2015 Apr 8, British police
found Abdul-Hadi Arwani (48) dead in a parked car with gunshot
wounds to his chest in the Wembley area of London. The Syria-born
Muslim cleric had been critical of Syria's President Bashar Assad.
(AP, 4/8/15)
2015 Apr 8, Royal Dutch Shell
said it will pay the equivalent of 13.67 pounds in cash and stock
for each share of British rival BG Group, 50 percent more than the
April 7 closing price.
(AP, 4/8/15)

2015 Apr 9, Argentina and
Britainís longstanding dispute over the Falklands escalated as
Buenos Aires took legal action against companies exploring for oil
off the islands and the countries summoned each other's ambassadors
for a dressing-down.
(AFP, 4/9/15)

2015 Apr 14, A London judge
ruled that Antonio Troitino, a convicted ETA militant who spent
years in prison in Spain, should be extradited back to the country.
He had spent 24 years in Spanish prisons for his role in 22 murders
by ETA. A legal bungle in April 2011 set Troitino free and before it
was resolved he went on the run to London, where he was arrested the
following year.
(AFP, 4/14/15)
2015 Apr 14, Turkey deported
nine Britons, including the son of a local councilor, two weeks
after arresting them for attempting to cross into Syria.
(AFP, 4/14/15)

2015 Apr 15, Britainís
Financial Conduct Authority said it has fined the Bank of New York
Mellonís London branch and Bank of New York Mellon International
Limited 126 million pounds ($186 million) for breaking rules meant
to protect customer assets between 2007 and 2013.
(AP, 4/15/15)

2015 Apr 16, British
prosecutors said they will not charge former lawmaker Greville
Janner (86) with alleged sex crimes due to his severe dementia. More
than a dozen people had accused Janner of abusing them in the
1960s-1980s. Janner died on Dec 19, days after a court ruled him
unfit because of ill health to stand trial.
(SFC, 4/17/15, p.A2)(AP, 12/20/15)

2015 Apr 23, British coastguard
seized more than two tons of cocaine off the east coast of Scotland.
French customs shared "specific information allowing two ships from
the Royal Navy and the British coastguards to board a tug 100 km (60
miles) east of Scotland carrying the cocaine. Nine men were soon
charged with drug trafficking.
(AFP, 4/26/15)

2015 May 2, British mystery
writer Ruth Rendell (b.1930), crime novelist, died in London. She
brought psychological insight and social conscience to the classic
British detective story. Her Wexford books were made into a popular
TV series, "The Ruth Rendell Mysteries," which ran for more than a
decade from 1987. In 1997 she was appointed to the House of Lords by
PM Tony Blair's Labour government, becoming Baroness Rendell of
Babergh.
(AP, 5/2/15)

2015 May 7, Britain held
general elections. PM David Cameron won a stunning election victory.
The Conservatives won 331 of 650 seats. Cameron will form the first
majority Conservative government since John Major's surprise victory
in 1992. Labor won 232 seats. The Scottish National Party (SNP)
obliterated its opponents, taking 56 of Scotland's 59 seats in the
Westminster parliament.
(AP, 5/7/15)(Reuters, 5/8/15)(SSFC, 5/10/15,
p.A4)

2015 May 14, British police
said more than 700 potential terror suspects have traveled to Syria
from the UK to fight or support extremists, and about half are
believed to have returned.
(AP, 5/14/15)

2015 May 19, London police
arrested nine men over an audacious heist in London's diamond
district Easter weekend, when a gang drilled through a reinforced
concrete vault and broke into 72 safe deposit boxes.
(AFP, 5/19/15)(SFC, 5/20/15, p.A6)

2015 May 20, A national UK
police group looking into potential links between multiple British
investigations into past child sex abuse said that more than 1,400
suspects have been identified.
(AP, 5/20/15)
2015 May 20, JPMorgan Chase,
Citigroup, Barclays and The Royal Bank of Scotland announced a
settlement with the US Justice Dept. and will pay $2.5 billion in
fines and plead guilty to criminally manipulating global currency
market going back to 2007. UBS, has agreed to plead guilty to
manipulating key interest rates and will pay a separate $203 million
criminal penalty.
(AP, 5/20/15)

2015 Jun 4, Britain's newly
elected government announced plans to sell off its remaining stake
in Royal Mail and slash ministry budgets in a bid to cut ¬£4.5
billion ($6.9 billion, 6.1 billion euros) from state debt this year.
(AFP, 6/4/15)
2015 Jun 4, British police
arrested four Polish drivers on suspicion of facilitating illegal
immigration after 68 people were found inside lorries at Harwich
International Port.
(AFP, 6/5/15)

2015 Jun 5, British regulators
said they have fined Lloyds Banking Group ¬£117 million for unfair
treatment of customer complaints after they were mis-sold an
insurance product. Lloyds and other British banks had already been
ordered to compensate customers for mis-selling PPI insurance
products.
(AFP, 6/5/15)

2015 Jun 7, British actor
Christopher Lee (b.1922) died in London. He appeared in over 250
movies and is best known for his role as Count Dracula in a slew of
ďHammer Horror" thrillers.
(SFC, 6/12/15, p.A6)

2015 Jun 10, George Osborne,
Britainís chancellor of the exchequer, announced a new fiscal rule
where under normal conditions the government would be banned from
running a budget deficit.
(Econ, 6/13/15, p.55)
2015 Jun 10, British NGO Global
Witness said British oil company Soco International paid off an army
officer accused of silencing critics of exploration in Democratic
Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park. Global Witness published
scans of four checks totaling $15,600 (14,000 euros) allegedly
issued by Soco's Congolese subsidiary to the major posted to the
park. Two receipts for the checks signed by the officer were dated
May 15, 2014 and April 30, 2014.
(AFP, 6/10/15)

2015 Jun 11, Tim Hunt (72),
British Nobel Prize-winning scientist (2001), resigned from his post
at University College London over controversial comments he made
about female scientists. He had suggested that female scientists
could not take criticism without crying, and that relationships
between men and women in the laboratory disrupted work.
(AFP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 11, In northern
England a boy (14) stabbed his teacher Vincent Uzomah (50) in the
stomach at a school in Bradford in a racially-motivated attack. On
August 10 a judge sentenced the boy to six years in custody and a
further five years on license.
(http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-33847293)(AFP, 8/10/15)

2015 Jun 14, The Sunday Times
reported that Britain has pulled out agents from live operations in
"hostile countries" after Russia and China cracked top-secret
information contained in files leaked by former US National Security
Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
(Reuters, 6/14/15)

2015 Jun 19, Britain said it
will take in "several hundred more" vulnerable Syrian refugees,
after PM David Cameron said London was expanding a resettlement
program for the conflict-ravaged country.
(Reuters, 6/19/15)

2015 Jun 20, Thousands of
protesters marched through central London to demonstrate against the
newly re-elected Conservative government's plans for public spending
cuts.
(Reuters, 6/20/15)
2015 Jun 20, British police
arrested Karenzi Karake (54), the head of Rwanda's intelligence
service, on a warrant issued by Spain.
(AFP, 6/23/15)

2015 Jun 21, In England nine
people were arrested as thousands gathered at the prehistoric stone
circle in Stonehenge to mark the longest day of the year.
(AFP, 6/21/15)

2015 Jun 23, Eurostar said it
has canceled all passenger trains for the rest of the day through
the tunnel that links France and England, after striking ferry
workers swarmed the train line setting tires alight.
(AP, 6/23/15)

2015 Jun 26, In Tunisia 39
people were killed and 40 wounded in a gun attack on the five-star
Riu Imperial Marhaba beachside hotel in Sousse. The confirmed death
toll of Britons reached 30 out of the 38 foreign tourists who were
mowed down by a Kalashnikov-toting gunman, identified as 23-year-old
student Seifeddine Rezgui.
(Reuters, 6/26/15)(AFP, 6/29/15)(Reuters, 7/1/15)

2015 Jun 28, In
Belgium a British bus with 34 children on board
overturned and crashed on a motorway, killing just the driver.
(Reuters, 6/28/15)

2015 Jun 30, Striking ferry
workers invaded the railroad tracks leading to the Eurotunnel
linking France and England, and train service across the Channel was
suspended until further notice.
(AP, 6/30/15)

2015 Jul 1, Nicholas Winton
(b.1909), British humanitarian, died. He almost single-handedly
saved 669 mostly Jewish children from the Holocaust. In 1938 Winton
arranged trains to carry Jewish children from occupied Prague to
Britain.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Winton)(AP, 7/1/15)

2015 Jul 8, Britainís
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne unveiled fresh austerity
measures to slash the country's debt. Osborne said Britain will
commit to maintaining defense spending at NATO's target of 2 percent
of gross domestic product every year for the rest of the decade.
(AFP, 7/8/15)(Reuters, 7/8/15)

2015 Jul 9, In England a
24-hour strike by staff and drivers brought Londonís underground
rail network to a halt and left millions struggling to get to work.
(Reuters, 7/9/15)

2015 Jul 11, Serena Williams
won a sixth Wimbledon title as the world number one became the
oldest woman to win a Grand Slam crown with a 6-4, 6-4 victory
against Garbine Muguruza.
(AP, 7/11/15)

2015 Jul 13, British
authorities confirmed an outbreak at a farm of the H7N7 strain of
avian flu that is both highly contagious and potentially deadly for
birds.
(AFP, 7/13/15)
2015 Jul 13, In London Ashley
Mote (79), a former Eurosceptic member of the European Parliament,
was sentenced to five years in prison for fraudulently claiming
almost 500,000 pounds ($777,000) in expenses.
(AP, 7/13/15)

2015 Jul 16, Britainís
Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority confirmed that it has
given lawmakers a 10 percent pay increase, a headache for PM David
Cameron who has pledged that public sector workers should only get a
1 percent raise.
(AP, 7/16/15)

2015 Jul 17, In England an
explosion ripped through the mill in the village of Bosley, in
Cheshire. Three men and a woman, believed to be at the site, were
missing.
(AP, 7/18/15)

2015 Jul 19, The family of
Babar Ahmad, a British man who was last year sentenced by a US court
to 12-1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to running a website
that supported the Taliban, said he has been released. His sentence
included 10 years he had already served.
(Reuters, 7/19/15)

2015 Jul 20, PM David Cameron
set out a five-year strategy to tackle extremism in Britain, vowing
to take on those responsible for radicalizing young British Muslims
and demanding that internet companies do more to help.
(Reuters, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 20, British
cosmologist Stephen Hawking launched the biggest-ever search for
intelligent life in the universe in a 10-year, $100-million
(143-million-euro) project to scan the heavens. The Breakthrough
Listen project was backed by Russian Silicon Valley entrepreneur
Yuri Milner.
(AFP, 7/20/15)

2015 Jul 23, In England Simon
Reynolds (50) was absent from the court in Sheffield as a jury
returned a verdict of four counts of theft. The Church of England
priest was convicted of pocketing around 24,000 pounds ($37,000) of
church funds. Reynolds turned himself in to police on July 27. On
July 28 a judge jailed Reynolds for two years and eight months for
pocketing church funds.
(AP, 7/24/15)(AFP, 7/27/15)(AP, 7/28/15)
2015 Jul 23, Pearson PLC, the
owner of the Financial Times, said it has agreed to sell FT Group to
Nikkei Inc. for 844 million pounds ($1.3 billion), payable in cash.
(AP, 7/23/15)
2015 Jul 23, The European Union
launched an antitrust case against six major US movie studios and
British satellite broadcaster Sky UK, in a move that could
profoundly shake up the highly lucrative pay-television market in
Europe.
(AP, 7/23/15)

2015 Jul 24, Mining groups
Anglo American and Lonmin announced plans to cut their headcounts by
a combined 12,000 staff owing to falling metals prices in a weak
global economy. Lonmin, the world's third largest platinum producer,
said it would cut 6,000 jobs in South Africa.
(AFP, 7/24/15)

2015 Jul 25, Britain lifted an
official warning against all but essential travel to Iran, citing
"decreased hostility" in the wake of a landmark nuclear deal.
(AFP, 7/25/15)

2015 Jul 26, Britainís deputy
speaker of the House of Lords, John Sewel (69), resigned his
position after publication of photos and a video allegedly showing
him using cocaine with prostitutes. He remained a member of the
House of Lords. On July 28 Sewel terminated his membership in the
House of Lords
(AP, 7/26/15)(AP, 7/28/15)

2015 Jul 30, British teenager
Liam Lyburd (19) was convicted of planning a gun and bomb attack at
his former college, buying a semi-automatic handgun and ammunition
online to carry out a massacre at northern England's Newcastle
College, which had expelled him for being disruptive in class.
(AP, 7/30/15)
2015 Jul 30, Royal Dutch Shell
announced deep cuts to jobs and investment on as the global energy
giant prepares for a prolonged period of low oil prices.
(AP, 7/30/15)

2015 Jul 31, Britain's Serious
Fraud Office (SFO) said it has opened a criminal investigation into
Soma Oil and Gas following allegations of corruption in Somalia. On
August 3 Soma, a private company chaired by Lord Michael Howard,
denied paying more than half a million dollars to Somali government
officials to protect an oil exploration deal signed in 2013. On
(AFP, 8/6/15)
2015 Jul 31, Britain performed
an about-face and granted a six-month visa to dissident Chinese
artist Ai Weiwei, apologizing for rejecting his application over an
alleged criminal conviction.
(AFP, 7/31/15)
2015 Jul 31, In southern
England a pilot and three passengers died when a Saudi-owned
executive jet crashed into a parking lot and burst into flames while
trying to land at Blackbushe Airport. The dead included a sister,
brother-in-law and stepmother of Osama bin Laden as well as the
plane's Jordanian pilot.
(AP, 8/1/15)

2015 Aug 1, Rival protests
featuring those welcoming migrants and far-right wingers opposed to
their presence were held in the British port town of in Folkestone
at the mouth of the Channel Tunnel.
(AFP, 8/1/15)

2015 Aug 2, Britain and France
vowed that a cross-Channel migrant crisis was their "top priority"
in a united front that belied simmering anger over an issue which
has become a political hot potato.
(AFP, 8/2/15)

2015 Aug 3, Britain's
government promised new measures to crack down on illegal immigrants
by making landlords evict them, as the Calais migrants crisis
continued to dominate the headlines.
(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 3, Former British PM
Edward Heath (d.2005) was drawn into a child sex abuse scandal when
police watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission said it
would investigate a retired policeman's claim that a prosecution was
dropped in the 1990s when the accused threatened to expose the
ex-premier. Heath led Britain between 1970 and 1974, taking it into
the European Economic Community in 1973.
(AFP, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 3, In London Tom
Hayes, (35), a trader who worked for UBS and Citigroup, was jailed
for 14 years after becoming the first person to be found guilty by a
jury of rigging the benchmark Libor inter-bank lending rate.
Prosecutors said Hayes was the "ringmaster" of more than a dozen
traders who worked to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).
(AFP, 8/3/15)

2015 Aug 5, British radical
preacher Anjem Choudary (48) was charged under anti-terror laws with
inviting support for the Islamic State jihadist group.
(AFP, 8/5/15)
2015 Aug 5, London Underground
staff walked out this evening and will not return until August 7
morning, causing a shutdown of the subway network that has severely
disrupted transport in the capital.
(AP, 8/6/15)

2015 Aug 5, British cell phone
retailer Carphone Warehouse discovered a security breach. On August
8 the company said personal details of up to 2.4 million customers
may have been accessed after the company was hit by a cyber-attack.
(AP, 8/8/15)

2015 Aug 11, British Defense
Secretary Michael Fallon said his nation is doubling the number of
Ukrainian troops it will train this year to 2,000 in an effort to
support Kiev in its fight against Russia-backed separatists.
(AP, 8/11/15)

2015 Aug 12, British publishing
company Pearson said it has agreed to sell its 50-percent stake in
The Economist Group, owner of prestigious magazine The Economist,
for $730 million (663 million euros), split between The Economist
Group itself and Italian investment firm Exor, which is controlled
by the Agnelli family.
(AFP, 8/12/15)

2015 Aug 13, Britain said it
would make a formal protest to Ecuador over its decision to provide
asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in its London embassy and
so prevent his extradition to Sweden over alleged sex crimes.
(Reuters, 8/13/15)

2015 Aug 21, A UK military
drone strike killed 3 fighters in Syria, including 2 British men,
Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin, who had joined Islamic State militants.
This was the first such drone strike acknowledged by the British
government.
(AP, 9/7/15)(Econ, 9/12/15, p.44)(AP, 4/26/17)

2015 Aug 22, In southern
England a single-seater jet, participating in the Shoreham Airshow,
crashed near Brighton. 11 people died when the jet plowed into
several cars on a busy road near the air show.
(AP, 8/22/15)(AFP, 8/23/15)

2015 Aug 23, Britain's foreign
secretary reopened his country's embassy in Tehran in a long-awaited
step signaling better relations four years after a mob stormed the
compound, forcing its closure.
(AFP, 8/23/15)

2015 Aug 24, British citizen
Damian Moran said almost 80,000 people had signed a petition urging
the arrest of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes when he
visits London next month. Israel launched military action in the
Gaza Strip on July 8, 2014, leading to the deaths of more than 2,000
Palestinians and 66 Israeli soldiers.
(AFP, 8/24/15)
2015 Aug 24, In Syria a US air
strike outside Raqqa killed Junaid Hussain (21), an Islamic State
hacker from Birmingham, England. The strike also killed 3 civilians.
(SFC, 8/28/15, p.A4)(AFP, 1/29/16)

2015 Sep 1, The Lizard Squad of
hackers claimed they had downed the website of Britain's lead law
enforcement agency. The attack came four days after the NCA arrested
six hackers, accusing them of buying code from Lizard Squad that
enables DDoS attacks.
(AFP, 9/1/15)

2015 Sep 3, PM David Cameron
promised Britain would fulfil its "moral responsibilities" in the
migrants crisis but resisted growing pressure at home and abroad to
accept a bigger share of Syrian refugees.
(AFP, 9/3/15)

2015 Sep 4, PM David Cameron
said Britain will provide an extra 100 million pounds (137 million
euros, $153 million) in humanitarian aid for the Syrian crisis,
bringing its total contribution to more than 1.0 billion pounds.
Cameron said Britain will take in thousands more Syrian refugees.
(AFP, 9/4/15)

2015 Sep 7, PM David Cameron
said Britain will take 20,000 Syrian refugees from camps near the
war-torn country's borders over the next five years.
(AFP, 9/7/15)
2015 Sep 7, British
archaeologists said they had found the buried remains of a
mysterious prehistoric monument close to the famous Stonehenge
heritage site dating back some 4,500 years. The discovery was made
at Durrington Walls -- a so-called "superhenge" located less than
three km (1.8 miles) from Stonehenge.
(AFP, 9/7/15)

2015 Sep 10, Kuwait agreed to
buy 28 Typhoon warplanes, becoming the third country in the Gulf
region to order the combat aircraft. Eurofighter is a partnership
between Italy's Finmeccanica, Britain's BAE Systems and civilian
plane maker Airbus.
(AFP, 9/12/15)

2015 Sep 11, A British court
sentenced seven men to prison for raping and sexually abusing babies
and young children and sharing the abuse online through pictures and
live videos.
(AP, 9/11/15)

2015 Sep 12, Jeremy Corbyn was
elected leader of Britain's opposition Labour party by 59% of the
partyís electorate.
(Reuters, 9/12/15)(Econ, 10/3/15, p.59)

2015 Sep 21, The British
government said it will underwrite 2 billion pounds ($3.1 billion)
in Chinese financing for a new nuclear power plant in southwest
England, as it encourages major Chinese investment in the UK nuclear
sector.
(AP, 9/21/15)

2015 Sep 25, British officials
said the US government has decided to release Shaker Aamer, the last
British resident to be held at Guantanamo Bay, to the UK. Aamer was
captured in Tora Bora in northern Afghanistan in December 2001
before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in February 2002. Aamer
was released in October. In December he told a newspaper that
British security officers had witnessed him being tortured by
American soldiers at Bagram air base in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 9/25/15)(AP, 12/13/15)

2015 Sep 28, Britainís PM David
Cameron says more than 300 British troops will be deployed to South
Sudan and Somalia as part of peacekeeping efforts to counter Islamic
militants.
(AP, 9/28/15)

2015 Sep, In Britain Tony
Jenkins, the co-founder of Snarl, a local animal rescue and
rehabilitation shelter, began investigating reports of suspicious
deaths and mutilations of cats in the south London area. After two
years Snarl identified more than 400 suspected victims: mostly cats,
but also some foxes and rabbits.
(AP, 12/16/17)

2015 Oct 1, A smoking ban went
into effect in Emngland and Wales against people in vehicles with
children.
(SFC, 10/2/15, p.A2)

2015 Oct 2, Nigeria's former
oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke was arrested in London. She was
minister from 2010 until May 2015 under former president Goodluck
Jonathan The National Crime Agency (NCA) said its International
Corruption Unit had arrested five people across London on suspicion
of bribery and corruption offences.
(AP, 10/3/15)

2015 Oct 4, In Britain tens of
thousands of anti-austerity protesters rallied as PM David Cameron's
governing Conservative Party opened its annual conference in
Manchester.
(AFP, 10/4/15)

2015 Oct 5, Britainís
Chancellor George Osborne set out ambitious plans to devolve power
to local councils and upgrade the countryís infrastructure.
(Econ, 10/10/15, p.57)

2015 Oct 7, A British court
jailed former Bishop Peter Ball (83) for 32 months after he pleaded
guilty to indecently assaulting teenagers in a case that has
prompted accusations of a cover-up. Eighteen victims said they had
been targeted by Ball at his home in Litlington, East Sussex.
(AFP, 10/7/15)

2015 Oct 9, Geoffrey Howe (88),
former British Treasury chief (1979-1983) and a prominent figure in
Margaret Thatcher's government, died at his home in Warwickshire. He
helped bring about her downfall after they parted ways over policy
toward Europe.
(AP, 10/10/15)

2015 Oct 12, Princeton Prof.
Angus Deaton, a British-born economist, won the 2015 economics Nobel
Prize for his work on consumption, poverty and welfare that has
helped governments to improve policy through tools such as household
surveys and tax changes.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)(SFC, 10/13/15, p.A2)

2015 Oct 13, The British
government pulled out of 5.9 million-pound ($9 million) deal to sell
prison expertise to Saudi Arabia that had drawn opposition from
rights groups and senior politicians.
(AP, 10/13/15)
2015 Oct 13, British-based
brewer SABMiller accepted in principle an improved takeover bid
worth 69 billion pounds ($106 billion) from Anheuser Busch InBev to
create a company that would control nearly a third of the global
market and threaten to dominate the US by bringing together
Budweiser and Miller Genuine Draft. The new company is expected to
be based in Belgium.
(AP, 10/13/15)

2015 Oct 17, In Turkey a
British woman working for a London-based media charity who was
heading to Iraq was found dead at Istanbul's Ataturk airport. Jackie
Sutton (50) was reportedly found hanged in the toilets. There were
no signs of foul play.
(AFP, 10/19/15)(AP, 10/21/15)

2015 Oct 19, British citizen
Stephen Port (40) was charged in London with drugging and murdering
four young men he met on gay websites. The deaths took place between
June 2014 and last month.
(AP, 10/19/15)
2015 Oct 19, Chinese President
Xi Jinping began a four-day state visit to Britain as part of a push
to increase trade ties between the two countries.
(AP, 10/19/15)

2015 Oct 21, PM David Cameron
said Britain and China have signed deals worth around 40 billion
pounds ($62 billion), during a state visit by Chinese President Xi
Jinping.
(Reuters, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 21, British police
arrested Shao Jiang (47), a survivor of the Tiananmen Square
crackdown and raided his home, after he stepped out in front of
Chinese President Xi Jinping's motorcade.
(AFP, 10/23/15)
2015 Oct 21, More than 100
migrants crowded into two boats landed at a British airbase on the
Mediterranean island of Cyprus, bringing the crisis that has rocked
much of Europe to British sovereign soil.
(AFP, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 21, Swiss-based Credit
Suisse said it plans to cut at least 3,400 jobs over three years in
Britain and Switzerland and raise billions in a new share offering
after its net profit fell 24 percent in the third quarter.
(AP, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 21, US Marine Corps
pilot Maj. Taj Sareen was killed when his F/A-18 Hornet crashed on
farmland after taking off from a US Air Force (USAF) base in eastern
England.
(Reuters, 10/21/15)(SFC, 10/22/15, p.A4)

2015 Oct 23, Chinese President
Xi Jinping has ended his state visit to Britain after being greeted
by hundreds of enthusiastic and well-organized well-wishers in the
northwest England city of Manchester.
(AP, 10/23/15)
2015 Oct 23, TalkTalk, a
British telephone and broadband provider, said it has been hit by a
"significant and sustained" cyber-attack and that the personal data
of millions of Britons could be at risk after.
(AFP, 10/23/15)

2015 Oct 25, Former British PM
Tony Blair acknowledged the 2003 invasion of Iraq played a part in
the rise of the Islamic State militant group, and apologized for
some mistakes in planning the war.
(Reuters, 10/2515)
2015 Oct 25, In Canada 5
Britons were killed when a Canadian whale-watching boat carrying 27
passengers sank off the coast of British Columbia. An Australian man
remained missing and the rest were rescued.
(Reuters, 10/2615)(SFC, 10/27/15, p.A2)

2015 Nov 2, British actor and
writer Colin Welland (81) died. He famously told Hollywood "the
British are coming" when he won an Academy Award for "Chariots of
Fire" in 1981.
(AP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 2, A young French
fisherman was among eight people arrested on suspicion of helping
migrants cross the Channel to Britain in a high-speed inflatable
boat. The fisherman had been smuggling migrants to Britain "for
several months" on an inflatable Zodiac boat that could carry some
20 people at a time.
(AFP, 11/4/15)

2015 Nov 3, A British judge
ordered a huge financial payout for Palestinian-born Janan Harb
(68), who claims she was the "secret wife" of the late King Fahd of
Saudi Arabia. Harb had told the court she secretly married the king
in 1968 when he was still a prince.
(AP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 3, Banking group
Standard Chartered said it is slashing 15,000 jobs worldwide and
plans to raise $5.1 billion from shareholders through a rights issue
as part of a major restructuring to shore up its financial position.
(AP, 11/3/15)

2015 Nov 6, British drugmaker
AstraZeneca said it had agreed to buy US group ZS Pharma, a
specialist in treating high potassium levels linked to kidney
disease.
(AFP, 11/6/15)

2015 Nov 7, A British official
said Britain hopes to return all of its stranded tourists from Sharm
al-Sheikh within 10 days.
(Reuters, 11/7/15)

2015 Nov 10, British police
arrested a former soldier for the Bloody Sunday killings in
Londonderry in 1972, part of a probe aimed at healing the wounds of
Northern Ireland's three decades of unrest.
(AP, 11/10/15)

2015 Nov 12, Police announced a
swoop on a European jihadist network that was allegedly planning to
kidnap diplomats and carry out attacks to try to spring its leader
out of detention in Norway. Seventeen arrest warrants were issued
and 13 people were detained in Britain, Italy and Norway.
(AFP, 11/12/15)

2015 Nov 13, A British judge
sentenced Nathan Matthews to at least 33 years in prison for
murdering and dismembering Becky Watts (16), his teenage stepsister.
His girlfriend, Shauna Hoare, was sentenced to 17 years in prison
for her role in the killing.
(AP, 11/13/15)
2015 Nov 13, A new lung cancer
pill from AstraZeneca, designed for patients whose disease has
worsened after treatment with other therapies, won early US
approval, in a boost for the British drugmaker.
(Reuters, 11/13/15)

2015 Nov 17, Finance minister
George Osborne said British spies are building elite cyber offensive
forces to strike at Islamic State fighters, hackers and hostile
powers.
(Reuters, 11/17/15)
2015 Nov 17, Britain published
ďA Fresh Start," a long-sought agreement with Northern Irelandís
parties that all sides would sustain their Catholic-Protestant
government.
(SFC, 11/18/15, p.A5)
2015 Nov 17, A British couple
was found guilty of keeping a Nigerian immigrant enslaved for more
than two decades, forcing him to work for no pay and threatening him
with deportation if he tried to escape. Emanuel Edet (61) and Antan
Edet (58) held their victim captive from the time he was brought to
Britain when he was 14 years old.
(Reuters, 11/18/15)

2015 Nov 27, Queen Elizabeth
openeed 24th biennial Commonwealth Summit in Malta. Leaders of 53
countries -- around a quarter of the world's countries and a third
of its population, gathered to discuss global issues.
(AFP, 11/27/15)

2015 Nov 28, In Duesseldorf,
Germany, Britain's Tyson Fury (27) was crowned the new world
heavyweight champion after a unanimous points win over Wladimir
Klitschko (39), who suffered his first defeat in eleven years.
(AFP, 11/29/15)

2015 Nov, British researchers
announced they had successfully treated a one-year-old girl who had
leukemia using gene-edited T-cells.
(Econ, 12/5/15, p.79)

2015 Dec 3, Britain joined the
US-led air strikes against Islamic State in Syria.
(Reuters, 12/3/15)

2015 Dec 4, British bombers
made their second round of strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria
late today, again hitting oil fields.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 4, Aravindan
Balakrishnan (75), a cult leader who led a secretive Maoist commune
in London, was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting his
female followers and imprisoning his own daughter for 30 years.
(AP, 12/4/15)

2015 Dec 5, Muhaydin Mire (29)
slashed a man (56) at the east London Leytonstone metro station,
reportedly screaming "this is for Syria", in what police described
as a terrorist incident. On June 8 a British court convicted Mire, a
mentally ill taxi driver, of attempted murder.
(Reuters, 12/6/15)(AFP, 12/7/15)(AP, 6/8/16)
2015 Dec 5, In Britain Storm
Desmond whipped across the country. A 90-year-old man died near a
north London Underground station after he was apparently blown
against the side of a moving bus.
(AFP, 12/6/15)
2015 Dec 5, Guyana's Government
Information Agency said British petroleum giant Tullow Oil PLC will
be awarded an exploration license near an offshore basin where Exxon
Mobil found large quantities of oil and gas in May.
(AP, 12/5/15)

2015 Dec 8, Britain's National
Crime Agency warned the average age of suspected cyber criminals has
become younger, with investigations in the past year showing that
suspects' average age dropped to just 17 compared to 24 in the
previous year.
(AP, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 8, London-based Anglo
American said it will shed 85,000 employees, 63 percent of its
workforce, in a radical restructuring meant to cope with tumbling
commodity prices.
(AP, 12/8/15)

2015 Dec 9, Kenya and Britain
signed a deal to allow British troops to continue military training
in the East African nation for five more years, ending half a decade
of protracted negotiations which tested their relations.
(Reuters, 12/9/15)

2015 Dec 10, Four tobacco
giants launched a High Court legal challenge against a British law
banning the use of logos or branding on packets of tobacco products
from May 2016.
(AFP, 12/10/15)

2015 Dec 11, Jaguar Land Rover
signed a deal with the Slovak government to build a new plant for
the luxury car maker in Slovakia.
(AP, 12/11/15)

2015 Dec 15, British police
arrested a man (21) on hacking-related charges linked to the
November hacking of childrenís technology maker VTech, which
compromised the personal information of some 6.4 million children
worldwide.
(SFC, 12/16/15, p.C2)
2015 Dec 15, In Kazakhstan Tim
Peake (43), the first British astronaut to travel to the
International Space Station, blasted off from the Baikonur
cosmodrome with Russian space veteran Yury Malenchenko and Tim Kopra
of NASA for a six-month mission.
(AFP, 12/15/15)

2015 Dec 16, British lawmakers
voted in favor of the use of fracking to extract shale gas under
national parks, weakening a decision against fracking in national
parks made earlier this year and giving shale gas explorers access
to more resources.
(Reuters, 12/16/15)

2015 Dec 24, The Churches of
England and Scotland said they have reached an historic agreement to
work more closely together.
(AFP, 12/24/15)

2015 Dec 26, Britain's
Meteorological Office issued two of its most severe weather warnings
after days of torrential rain in northern England caused rivers to
burst their banks and flood several villages.
(Reuters, 12/26/15)

2015 Dec 28, Ian "Lemmy"
Kilmister (70), the hell-raising frontman of pioneering British
heavy metal band Motorhead, died of cancer in Los Angeles, bringing
to an end the story of a band dubbed the loudest in the world.
(AFP, 12/29/15)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.78)

2015 Dec 30, In London a
husband Mohammed Rehman (25) and his ex-wife (Sana Ahmed Khan (24),
convicted of planning a major attack to mark the 10th anniversary of
the London suicide bombings, were both sentenced to life in prison.
The couple were accused of planning their attack for around May 28.
(AFP, 12/30/15)

2015 Britain gained 333,000
people through immigration this year ó a near-historic high that
fanned the debate about newcomers ahead of a June 2016 vote on
whether the country should remain in the European Union.
(AP, 5/26/16)
2015 Britainís National Health
Insurance (NHS) employed one in 18 workers.
(Econ, 11/21/15, p.54)
2015 Chinese inward investment
in Britain reached $3.3 billion this year.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.56)

2016 Jan 3, The Islamic State
released a new video in which five purported British spies are shot
dead by masked extremists as propaganda from a group that is losing
control of territory in Syria and Iraq. Newspapers named Siddhartha
Dhar, a British Indian, as the speaker in the tape.
(AP, 1/4/16)(SFC, 1/4/16, p.A4)(Econ, 1/9/16,
p.50)

2016 Jan 8, Two Britons, Trevor
Brooks (40) and Simon Keeler (44) were jailed after being arrested
in Hungary where they were suspected of heading to Syria, in breach
of strict travel constraints because they had convictions for
terrorism offences.
(Reuters, 1/8/16)
2016 Jan 8, British health
officials said drinking any alcohol regularly increases the risk of
cancer, and have issued tough new guidelines that could be hard to
swallow in a nation where having a pint is a hallowed tradition.
(AP, 1/8/16)

2016 Jan 9, Organizers said
Britain's biggest-ever national lottery win was shared by two
players, after huge numbers of tickets were sold for the 66 million
pound ($96 million) tax-free jackpot.
(Reuters, 1/9/16)

2016 Jan 10, British singer
David Bowie (b.1947) died in NYC. He had received little attention
until his 5th album: ďThe Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust" (1972).
(AP, 1/11/16)(Econ, 1/16/16, p.97)

2016 Jan 11, Belgian police
aided by their British counterparts said they have smashed a ring
that smuggled possibly thousands of migrants into Britain, with 12
suspects arrested in the case.
(AFP, 1/11/16)

2016 Jan 12, Tens of thousands
of junior doctors went on strike in England, causing major
disruption to hospitals in the first walkout of its kind for 40
years.
(AFP, 1/12/16)
2016 Jan 12, British energy
major BP said that it will axe more than 4,000 jobs worldwide over
the next two years in response to collapsing oil prices.
(AFP, 1/12/16)

2016 Jan 14, Veteran British
actor Alan Rickman (b.1946), a master of playing menacing screen
villains, died after suffering from cancer. He played the largely
malicious teacher Severus Snape in all eight "Harry Potter" films
from 2001 to 2011.
(AFP, 1/14/16)

2016 Jan 15, British brewer
SABMiller said it will close the only beer factory in South Sudan
due to an acute shortage of foreign currency in the world's youngest
country.
(AFP, 1/15/16)

2016 Jan 20, George Weidenfeld
(b.1919), British publisher and philanthropist, died in London. He
was responsible for publishing Vladimir Nabakovís ďLolita" in 1959.
(Econ, 1/30/16, p.82)

2016 Jan 22, Technology giant
Google said it will pay ¬£130 million ($185.4 million, 172 million
euros) in back taxes to Britain following a government inquiry into
its tax arrangements.
(AFP, 1/23/16)

2016 Jan 23, British PM David
Cameron urged the Maldives to open up its politics and release all
remaining political prisoners after meeting former president Mohamed
Nasheed.
(AFP, 1/23/16)

2016 Jan 24, British adventurer
Henry Worsley (55) died in an attempt to make history by crossing
the Antarctic alone in a trip backed by members of the royal family.
He was just 30 miles (48km) from the finish when he called for help
and was airlifted to a hospital in Chile on Jan 22 suffering from
exhaustion and severe dehydration.
(AFP, 1/25/16)(Econ, 2/6/16, p.82)

2016 Jan 25, Britainís
Chancellor George Osborne and Bill Gates announced a £3 billion
($4.28 billion, 4 billion euros) fund for research and to support
efforts to eliminate malaria.
(AFP, 1/25/16)

2016 Feb 1, British mother
Tareena Shakil (26), who took her toddler to Syria and joined the
Islamic State (IS) group, was sentenced to six years in prison after
becoming the first British woman to be convicted after returning
home.
(AFP, 2/1/16)

2016 Feb 3, Iraqi-British
architect Zaha Hadid was awarded Britain's Royal Gold Medal,
becoming the first individual woman to win the award. Known for
works including the Guangzhou Opera House in China and the London
Aquatics Centre.
(AFP, 2/3/16)

2016 Feb 4, Donor nations
meeting in London pledged to give billions of dollars in aid to
Syrians as world leaders gathered for a conference to tackle the
world's worst humanitarian crisis. The British government announced
£1.2 billion (1.6 million euros, $1.74 billion) in aid for war-torn
Syria and its neighbours.
(Reuters, 2/4/16)(AFP, 2/4/16)

2016 Feb 5, A UN panel said it
had adopted an opinion "in which it considered that Mr Julian
Assange was arbitrarily detained by the governments of Sweden and
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland." It added:
"The working group also considered that the detention should be
brought to an end and that Mr Assange should be afforded the right
to compensation."
(AFP, 2/5/16)

2016 Feb 10, Thousands of
junior doctors throughout England wet on strike after the failure of
contract negotiations.
(AP, 2/10/16)

2016 Feb 11, Thousands of
junior doctors at English hospitals continued a second strike
against proposed new conditions and pay rates for working unsociable
hours.
(AFP, 2/11/16)

2016 Feb 15, The English
singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran won Song of the Year for "Thinking Out
Loud," a bare guitar ballad that made history as a viral hit.
Sheeran shared the rammy award with his co-writer Amy Wadge, a
British folk artist.
(AFP, 2/16/16)
2016 Feb 15, Britain's
government intervened to try and save the tradition of printing all
laws on vellum made of animal skin. The House of Lords decided last
week that the centuries-old practice would be scrapped and laws
would be printed on paper instead of goatskin or sheepskin in a bid
to save ¬£80,000 (103,000 euros, $116,000) per year.
(AFP, 2/15/16)

2016 Feb 18, EU leaders began
meeting to thrash out a deal that aims to keep Britain in the bloc.
(AP, 2/18/16)

2016 Feb 19, Britainís PM David
Cameron faced a second day of tough talks with European Union
partners after arguing for much of the night over concessions to
help keep Britain in the bloc.
(Reuters, 2/19/16)

2016 Feb 20, British PM David
Cameron called a June 23 referendum on membership of the European
Union as he sought to rally his divided Conservative Party behind a
deal which he said would guarantee Britain's prosperity and security
in the bloc.
(Reuters, 2/20/16)

2016 Feb 21, Spanish police
working with Britain's National Crime Agency and Manchester police
announced the arrest of six suspected members of a British hit squad
that had traveled to the Mediterranean Costa del Sol to allegedly
kill the leader of a rival gang.
(AP, 2/21/16)

2016 Feb 22, Douglas Slocombe
(103), the chameleonic British cinematographer who filmed the Nazi
invasion of Poland, the adventures of "Indiana Jones" and the madcap
farce of Ealing comedies, diedin a London hospital.
(AP, 2/23/16)

2016 Feb 23, Britain said it
had seen disturbing evidence that Syrian Kurds were coordinating
with the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad and the
Russian air force.
(Reuters, 2/23/16)

2016 Feb 24, Astronaut Tim
Peake presented Adele with a Brit Award from space, as the singer
swept the board at the annual British music awards rendered sober
this year by the death of David Bowie.
(AFP, 2/24/16)

2016 Feb 27, Thousands marched
through London to oppose the renewal of Britain's Trident nuclear
weapons system in what demonstrators describe as the biggest such
rally in a generation.
(AP, 2/27/16)

2016 Feb 29, Britain's defense
minister said about 20 UK troops are being sent to Tunisia to help
stop people crossing illegally from chaotic Libya.
(AP, 2/29/16)

2016 Mar 2, Jason Lawrance
(50), a British man, was found guilty of raping five women he met
through the US Internet dating service match.com, which he was
allowed to use despite complaints to the website from his victims.
(AFP, 3/2/16)

2016 Mar 8, British gas and
electricity supplier Npower said it is cutting 2,400 jobs, a fifth
of its workforce, after losing hundreds of thousands of customers
and reporting poor financial results.
(AP, 3/8/16)
2016 Mar 8, Sir George Martin
(b.1926), British producer for the Beatles, died. Martin also worked
with Jeff Beck, Elton John, Celine Dion and on several solo albums
by Paul McCartney.
(AP, 3/9/16)

2016 Mar 9, Thousands of
British doctors began a 48-hour strike in an acrimonious dispute
over a new contract.
(AP, 3/9/16)

2016 Mar 10, It was reported
that Abu Hamed, a disillusioned former member of Islamic State, has
passed a stolen memory stick of documents identifying 22,000
supporters in over 50 countries to a British journalist, a leak that
could help the West target Islamist fighters planning attacks.
(Reuters, 3/10/16)

2016 Mar 14, Peter Maxwell
Davies (81), an experimental, socially radical composer who served
as Queen Elizabeth II's official master of music, died of leukemia
at his home in Scotland's Orkney islands.
(AP, 3/14/16)(Econ, 4/9/16, p.90)

2016 Mar 15, Norway's Academy
of Science and Letters said British mathematician Sir Andrew J.
Wiles has won the Abel Prize in math for his stunning proof of
French mathematician Pierre de Fermat's Last Theorem, first
conjectured by Fermat in 1637.
(AP, 3/15/16)

2016 Mar 18, British minister
Iain Duncan Smith quit, two days after cuts were unveiled in a sixth
consecutive austerity budget that included plans to cut benefits for
the disabled while giving tax breaks for the better off. The work
and pensions secretary said he could no longer support policies that
he believes are driven more by political ideology than economic
necessity.
(AP, 3/19/16)

2016 Mar 23, British police
arrested an unnamed Russian broker in London on suspicion of fraud.
He was later released on bail until July. Six weeks later London
police said they had seized four checks for $22 million related to a
suspected Russian organized crime scam that used the London futures
market to launder cash through two Russian companies, a Swiss firm
and a British Virgin Islands investment group.
(Reuters, 5/11/16)

2016 Mar 24, Former England
footballer Adam Johnson was sentenced to six years in prison at
Bradford Crown Court for engaging in sexual activity with a
15-year-old fan.
(AFP, 3/24/16)
2016 Mar 24, In Scotland
shopkeeper Asad Shah (40), a Muslim of the pacifist Ahmadiya sect,
was killed in Glasgow. Another Muslim man was soon arrested in
connection with Shah's death. On July 7 suspect Tanveer Ahmed (32),
A Sunni Muslim from Bradford in northern England, pleaded guilty at
Glasgow's High Court. Ahmed said he killed Shah because he felt he
had disrespected Islam.
(AP, 3/26/16)(AP, 7/7/16)(Econ, 5/21/16, p.52)

2016 Mar 26, The final print
edition of The Independent newspaper went on sale, ending its
30-year appearance on British newsstands.
(AFP, 3/26/16)

2016 Mar 28, In Britain some
100,000 homes were left without power due to Storm Katie. High winds
caused some 130 flights at Gatwick and Heathrow airports to be
diverted or cancelled.
(SFC, 3/29/16, p.A2)

2016 Mar 30, Indian giant Tata
Steel put its British business up for sale, sparking calls for the
government to intervene and safeguard thousands of jobs in the
crisis-hit industry.
(AFP, 3/30/16)

2016 Mar 31, British actor
Douglas Wilmer (96) died in Ipswich. He played detective Sherlock
Holmes in a television series (1964-1965) in the TV movie "The
Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother" (1975).
(AP, 4/2/16)

2016 Apr 1, Britain's
Conservative government raised the minimum wage by 7.5 percent in a
move denounced by critics as largely symbolic in an era of state
austerity. Workers aged 25 and over will now earn a minimum hourly
gross wage of £7.20 ($10.36, 9.10 euros) compared with £6.70
previously.
(AFP, 4/1/16)
2016 Apr 1, In London delivery
driver Junead Khan (25) was convicted of plotting to kill US troops
based in England by staging road accidents with soldiers' cars and
then attacking them with knives and possibly a home-made bombs. He
and his uncle Shazib Khan (23) were also convicted of planning to
join IS in Syria.
(Reuters, 4/1/16)

2016 Apr 6, Junior doctors in
English hospitals went on strike again, withdrawing all but
emergency care in their fourth walk-out in a bitter dispute with the
government over working conditions.
(AFP, 4/6/16)

2016 Apr 8, British PM David
Cameron faced mounting pressure over his involvement in offshore
investments after he finally admitted he benefited from his father's
Panama-registered trust, an entity exposed by this week's massive
data leak at a law firm specializing in global tax avoidance.
(AP, 4/8/16)

2016 Apr 10, Howard Marks (70),
a Wales-born convicted drug smuggler, died of cancer. He was
arrested in 1988 in an operation led by the US Drug Enforcement
Administration and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was released
on parole in 1995. He then reinvented himself as an author after
publishing best-selling autobiography "Mr. Nice" (1996).
(AP, 4/11/16)

2016 Apr 11, British children's
author Helen Bailey (51) was last seen walking her miniature
dachshund Boris in Royston. Her partner Ian Stewart (55)
reported her missing soon after and issued a note appealing for her
to return. On July 16 Stewart was charged with murder after police
found her body in the grounds of her home.
(AP, 7/16/16)

2016 Apr 13, Prolific British
playwright Arnold Wesker (83) died. He drew on his heritage as a
working-class Jew to create plays that captured the dialogue and
struggles of the common man.
(AP, 4/13/16)
2016 Apr 13, In Thailand an
elderly British couple (65 and 68) and their son (43) were savagely
attacked and beaten unconscious during a family vacation in Hua,
Hin. The attack was captured on video. On April 28 police said they
have arrested the four suspected attackers. On May 23 the attackers
were sentenced to two years in prison.
(AP, 4/28/16)(AP, 6/6/16)

2016 Apr 14, Britain, France,
Germany, Italy and Spain agreed to share information on company
ownership to make it harder for criminals and tax cheats to avoid
the law.
(SFC, 4/16/16, p.A2)

2016 Apr 22, Bank of England
governor Mark Carney announced that artist J. M. W. Turner will
appear on the new £20 note.
(AFP, 4/22/16)
2016 Apr 22, Disgraced tycoon
Asil Nadir (74), jailed for stealing millions from his Polly Peck
empire, was released from a Turkish prison just one night after
being extradited from Britain. The Turkish Cypriot was convicted in
2012 of purloining nearly £29 million (37 million euros) -- the
equivalent of more than ¬£70 million in today's terms -- from the
major UK conglomerate in the late 1980s.
(AFP, 4/22/16)

2016 Apr 26, Junior doctors in
England staged their first ever all-out strike in a bitter,
deadlocked row with PM David Cameron's government over pay and
conditions. The National Health Service employs more than 50,000
junior doctors.
(AFP, 4/26/16)

2016 Apr 29, Cuban officials
said visiting British Foreign Secretary Anthony Hammond has reached
an agreement on restructuring Cuban debt payments in a meeting with
President Raul Castro.
(AFP, 4/30/16)

2016 Apr, Britainís Sir John
Chilcot, head of the Chilcot Inquiry, delivered a complete record of
Britainís involvement in Iraq from mid-2001 to 2009. Formation of
the inquiry was announced on 15 June 2009 by then PM Gordon Brown.
(Econ, 4/23/16, p.48)

2016 May 5, London held mayoral
elections. It became the first EU capital with a Muslim mayor as
voters went to the polls and elected Labour lawmaker Sadiq Khan
(45), the son of a bus driver, as mayor. Khan took 57% of the vote.
(AFP, 5/5/16)(Reuters, 5/7/16)(Econ, 5/14/16,
p.50)

2016 May 10, British
researchers warned that fifth of the world's plant species are at
risk of extinction, in an unprecedented global census of the plant
kingdom.
(AFP, 5/10/16)

2016 May 12, Britainís PM David
Cameron, the host of a global anti-corruption summit, announced that
countries have pledged to set up public registers of company
ownership in a collective effort to make it harder to launder the
proceeds of corruption around the globe. Countries taking part in
the summit issued a 34-point communique outlining pledges to tackle
issues ranging from doping and match-fixing in sports to tax evasion
and bribery.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)

2016 May 24, British media
reported that singer-songwriter Adele has signed a contract with
Sony worth up to ¬£90 million (117 million euros, $131 million), in
one of the biggest ever record deals. Adele has been at London-based
independent label XL Recordings since she was a teenager.
(AFP, 5/24/16)

2016 May 27, Britain told the
G7 industrial powers meeting in Japan to do more to fight killer
superbugs as the United States reported the first case in the
country of a patient with bacteria resistant to a last-resort
antibiotic.
(Reuters, 5/27/16)
2016 May 27, The International
Olympic Committee said that 23 athletes from five sports and six
countries had positive findings in retests with improved techniques
on 265 samples from the 2012 London Games, adding to the more than
30 already caught in retesting from the 2008 Beijing Games.
(AP, 5/27/16)

2016 May 31, In London the Walk
Free Foundation's Global Slavery Index said about 45.8 million
people around the world are trapped in modern slavery. India
reportedly had the largest number of modern slaves, 18.35 million,
followed by China with 3.39 million and Pakistan with 2.13 million.
(AP, 5/31/16)

2016 Jun 1, Mohamed Nasheed, a
former president of the Maldives now in exile in Britain after being
ousted from office and jailed in his country, formed an opposition
group aimed at toppling the government of President Abdulla Yameen.
(Reuters, 6/1/16)

2016 Jun 6, A court in Britain
sentenced former schoolteacher Richard Huckle to 22 life sentences
for child abuse after using his position teaching English in
Malaysia to gain access to victims. He will have to serve a minimum
of 25 years for 71 offenses against children aged between six months
and 12 years from 2006 to 2014.
(AP, 6/6/16)

2016 Jun 10, Northern Ireland
police commanders in Belfast unveiled a mammoth criminal
investigation into a former Irish Republican Army double agent
codenamed "Stakeknife," who was allegedly permitted by British Army
intelligence officers to interrogate, torture and kill IRA
colleagues to maintain his cover as the outlawed group's internal
security chief. The London-based investigation is expected to last
five years and cost 30 million pounds ($43 million).
(AP, 6/10/16)

2016 Jun 16, British opposition
Labour Party lawmaker Jo Cox (41) died after she was shot and
stabbed as she intervened in a scuffle between two men in Birstall
near Leeds. Thomas Mair (52), who had a history of mental illness,
was arrested by armed police. On Nov 23 Mair was sentenced to life
in jail.
(Reuters, 6/16/16)(Reuters, 6/17/16)(Reuters,
11/23/16)

2016 Jun 18, Protesters rallied
outside the French embassy in London after an aid convoy intended
for migrants was turned back by French border police. A 38-ton truck
full of aid was allowed through.
(AFP, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 18, In Kazakhstan Tim
Peake, the first British astronaut on the ISS, Russia's Yury
Malenchenko and NASA's Tim Kopra parachuted down onto the Kazakh
steppe in their Soyuz capsule at 0915 GMT after spending 186 days in
orbit.
(AFP, 6/18/16)

2016 Jun 23, Britons voted to
exit the European Union. Scotland voted decisively to stay in the EU
by 62 to 38 percent in the referendum, putting it at odds with the
United Kingdom as a whole, which voted 52-48 percent in favor of an
exit from the EU, or Brexit. 17.4 million people voted to leave.
(Reuters, 6/23/16)(Reuters, 6/24/16)(Econ,
7/2/16, p.14)

2016 Jun 24, Britainís PM David
Cameron said he would resign to make way for a new leader by early
October after voters opted to exit the 28-nation alliance in
defiance of his predictions of economic disaster and isolation.
(AFP, 6/24/16)
2016 Jun 24, EU chairman Donald
Tusk said European Union leaders are determined to keep the unity of
the EU after Britain voted to leave the 28-nation bloc, noting the
EU had been prepared for such an outcome. Britain's vote to leave
the EU fired up populist eurosceptic parties across the continent,
giving fresh voice to their calls to leave the bloc or its euro
currency. Global financial markets plunged as results from the
referendum defied bookmakers' odds to show a 52-48 percent victory
for the leave campaign.
(Reuters, 6/24/16)(AP, 6/24/16)
2016 Jun 24, Spain said it will
seek to jointly govern Gibraltar with Britain following the British
vote to leave the European Union.
(Reuters, 6/24/16)

2016 Jun 25, The six founding
members of the European Union sent a clear message to Britain to
leave the bloc as soon as possible after Britons voted to quit in
the biggest blow to the project since World War Two.
(Reuters, 6/25/16)

2016 Jun 27, A wave of British
lawmakers from the opposition Labour Party resigned in protest from
leader Jeremy Corbyn's team, including his most senior business
policy chief who said Corbyn was partly to blame for last week's
vote to leave the EU.
(Reuters, 6/27/16)

2016 Jun 28, British
researchers reported a huge helium gas field in Tanzania amid a
global shortage for the gas.
(SFC, 6/29/16, p.A2)
2016 Jun 28, British Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn lost a vote of no confidence among Labour MPs
by a vote of 172-40.
(Econ, 7/2/16, p.49)

2016 Jun 29, Scottish First
Minister Nicola Sturgeon made a dash to Brussels to tell the EU that
Scots were intent on staying in the bloc, hours after David Cameron
told a summit that Britain was pulling out.
(Reuters, 6/29/16)

2016 Jun 30, British American
Tobacco (BAT), the world's second biggest cigarette company, vowed
to investigate some of its supply farms in Bangladesh after a
Swedish campaign group uncovered the use of child workers to grow
and process tobacco.
(Reuters, 6/30/16)
2016 Jun 30, English Poet
Geoffrey Hill (84) died.
(Econ, 7/30/16, p.74)

2016 Jul 2, An estimated 40,000
people marched through London, waving European flags and chanting
"We love you EU" to voice their opposition to Britain's stunning
vote to quit the bloc.
(AFP, 7/2/16)

2016 Jul 4, Leading Brexit
campaigner Nigel Farage (52) stepped down as leader of the UK
Independence Party as the shockwaves from Britain's decision to quit
the EU continued to reverberate.
(AFP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 4, London Stock
Exchange Group shareholders voted overwhelmingly for a merger with
Deusche Boerse, operator of the Frankfurt exchange, despite concerns
it could be scuppered by Britain's EU exit.
(AFP, 7/4/16)

2016 Jul 6, Former British PM
Tony Blair voiced "sorrow, regret and apology" after Sir John
Chilcotís 2.6m-word damning report on the Iraq war, but said he did
not mislead parliament and did not regret toppling Saddam Hussein.
(AFP, 7/6/16)(Econ, 7/9/16, p.14)

2016 Jul 7, Britain jailed four
former Barclays bankers for manipulating the key inter-bank Libor
interest rate, with the highest sentence being 6.5 years.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, Five men were
crushed to death when a concrete wall collapsed at a metal recycling
site in Birmingham, Britain's second-largest city.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 7, A British court
awarded a £53 million (62 million euro, $69 million) divorce
settlement to Christina Estrada (54), a former model, who had
demanded £196 million from Sheikh Walid Juffali (61), her
Saudi billionaire husband, including £1 million a year just for
clothes. Juffali is terminally ill with cancer and undergoing
treatment in Switzerland. He divorced Estrada under Islamic law
without her knowledge and married a 25-year-old Lebanese model in
2012.
(AFP, 7/8/16)

2016 Jul 8, PM David Cameron
announced that Britain is lifting a ban on women serving in
frontline combat roles in the army.
(AP, 7/8/16)

2016 Jul 9, British lawyers
signed a letter saying: Our legal opinion is that the June 23
referendum is advisory." The letter was signed by 1054 prominent
lawyers.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)

2016 Jul 11, British Home
Secretary Theresa May (b.1956) became the country's
leader-in-waiting after her sole remaining rival unexpectedly
withdrew. PM David Cameron welcomed the development and said he
would offer his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II on July 13.
(AP, 7/11/16)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.18)
2016 Jul 11, British veteran
Labour MP Angela Eagle announced a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn as
party leader.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.46)

2016 Jul 13, Outgoing British
PM David Cameron urged his successor Theresa May to keep Britain
close to the European Union, even as she embarks on the monumental
task of ending four decades of membership.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, New British PM
Theresa May chose former London mayor Boris Johnson, known for his
gaffes and buffoonery, as foreign minister.
(AFP, 7/14/16)

2016 Jul 15, British PM Theresa
May visited Scotland and met with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in
Edinburgh seeking to dampen speculation about another Scottish vote
for independence, while insisting she is willing to listen to
proposals about Scotland's future relationship with the European
Union.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Britain listed the
East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), aka Turkestan Islamic Party
(TIP), as a terrorist organization. This pleased China, which had
demanded Western support for its fight against a group it says seeks
to split off its western region of Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)

2016 Jul 18, British lawmakers
voted to replace the countryís four aging nuclear-armed submarines
with new vessels.
(SFC, 7/19/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 18, It was announced
that ARM Holdings, a British Cambridge-based tech company, would be
sold to Japanís SoftBank for £24 billion.
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.44)

2016 Jul 20, A British nuclear
submarine collided with an unspecified merchant vessel off the coast
of Gibraltar, forcing it to dock in the disputed territory.
(AFP, 7/21/16)

2016 Jul 24, British border
agents moved in to help French officials deal with gigantic backups
for travelers trying to cross the English Channel into France. The
delays come at the start of the British holiday season when tens of
thousands of vacationers head to continental Europe.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, Chris Froome (31)
became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France three
times.
(http://tinyurl.com/hbh6jnm)

2016 Jul 25, British
prosecutors unveiled the extra charges against Stephen Port (41),
who already faced murder charges in connection with the discovery of
four bodies near Port's home in Barking, east London, between June
2014 and September 2015. They accused Port of nonlethal attacks on
eight other men involving six criminal counts of poisoning, seven of
rape and four of sexual assault.
(AP, 7/25/16)

2016 Jul 31, British PM Theresa
May set out a drive to tackle modern slavery, pledging more funding
and a new cross-government taskforce to help stamp out what she
called a "barbaric evil". She made the pledge as a review into the
2015 Modern Slavery Act.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)

2016 Aug 1, British drugs giant
GlaxoSmithKline announced that it will form a joint venture with
Google's parent company Alphabet to research and develop so-called
bioelectronic medicines.
(AFP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, An Indian bank
issued the first ever offshore rupee-denominated bond in London, a
landmark celebrated by officials keen to highlight Britain's
international business prowess despite Brexit.
(AFP, 8/1/16)

2016 Aug 2, A British court
ruled that the state-funded health service (NHS) is responsible for
paying for an HIV-prevention drug that has been called a "game
changer" in the fight against AIDS. The health service said it would
appeal.
(AP, 8/2/16)

2016 Aug 3, In London Zakaria
Bulhan (19), a Norwegian man of Somali origin, stabbed and killed
retired US teacher Darlene Horton (64). He stabbed five others
before he was immobilized and arrested by police. Bulhan was
suspected to have mental health issues. On Feb 6, 2016, Bulhan
pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility and
guilty to five counts of wounding. On Feb 7, 2016, he was sentenced
to be detained indefinitely at a mental hospital.
(AFP, 8/4/16)(AFP, 8/6/16)(AP, 2/6/17)(AP,
2/7/17)

2016 Aug 4, Britain's central
bank moved to stem the economic fallout from the vote to leave the
European union, approving its first interest rate cut since the
global financial crisis as part of a broader stimulus package. The
Bank of England cut its key rate to 0.25 percent from a previous
record low of 0.5 percent.
(AP, 8/4/16)

2016 Aug 5, British activists
linked to the US-based group Black Lives Matter blocked a road
leading to London's Heathrow Airport and held protests in other
British cities. Officers arrested 10 people.
(AP, 8/5/16)

2016 Aug 9, Britain defended
its decision to review a planned $24 billion nuclear power project
at Hinkley Point after criticism from China which planned to help
fund the deal.
(Reuters, 8/9/16)(Econ, 8/6/16, p.9)
2016 Aug 9, A British man who
killed a fellow Muslim because he felt he had disrespected Islam has
been sentenced to at least 27 years in prison. Tanveer Ahmed
admitted to stabbing and beating shopkeeper Asad Shah to death at
his Glasgow convenience store in March.
(AP, 8/9/16)

2016 Aug 12, Staff on the
Eurostar rail service between Britain and mainland Europe started
four days of strike action although the company insisted there would
be minimal disruption to services.
(AFP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, Fiji's men's
sevens rugby team won the countryís first ever Olympic medal with a
43-7 victory over Great Britain.
(AP, 8/12/16)(http://tinyurl.com/j2mcajn)

2016 Aug 21, British police
arrested Laurence former priest Soper (72) for sex crimes he is
accused of committing from 1972 to 1986. He was arrested at Luton
Airport after he was deported from Kosovo.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)

2016 Aug 22, Britain announced
plans to house imprisoned Islamist extremists in separate units from
other inmates, after a review found that some charismatic convicts
were radicalizing the wider Muslim population in prisons.
(AP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Jordan signed
grant agreements for the school program with Britain, the US, Norway
and Switzerland. Donor countries pledged close to $100 million to
help Jordan enroll all Syrian refugee children in the kingdom in
schools next month.
(AP, 8/22/16)

2016 Aug 23, In Australia
visiting Frenchman Smail Ayad (29) shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is
Greatest) as he stabbed a British woman to death and wounded two
people at a backpackers' hotel in in Home Hill, Queensland state.
The dead woman was identified as Mia Ayliffe-Chung (21) from the
English county of Derbyshire. On September 30 British backpacker
Thomas Jackson (30) died of wounds suffered while trying to stop the
attack on Chung.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)(AFP, 8/25/16)(Reuters,
8/30/16)

2016 Aug 24, In Britain 5 men
drowned off Camber Sands beach in southern England. The beach, known
for rip-tides, had no lifeguard.
(AP, 8/25/16)

2016 Aug 31, The Coalition for
Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was founded in London. It
planned to build up a bank of candidate vaccines for as many as
possible of the viral diseases that lurk on the edges of human
society. Founders included the Wellcome, the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, the World Economics Forum and the government of Norway.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.67)

2016 Sep 4, Iranian state TV
reported that the Islamic Republic has appointed its envoy to London
for the first time since 2011.
(AP, 9/5/16)

2016 Sep 5, Britain appointed
its envoy to Iran for the first time since 2011.
(AP, 9/5/16)

2016 Sep 16, A British judge
ruled that Lauri Love (31), man accused of hacking into US
government computer systems and stealing confidential information,
should be extradited to the United States to face trial. Love was
arrested in 2013 on suspicion of computer crimes but has not been
charged in Britain.
(AP, 9/16/16)

2016 Sep 23, A senior Royal Air
Force officer said British Tornado and Typhoon aircraft stationed at
a U.K. air base in Cyprus are pounding Islamic State targets ahead
of a major offensive by Iraqi security forces next month to
recapture the key northern city of Mosul from IS militants.
(AP, 9/24/16)

2016 Sep, Czech national Zdenek
Makar (31) died after a fight in London involving four Britons. One
of them, 29-year-old Raymond Sculley, was acquitted by a jury in
April 2017 of charges of murder and manslaughter.
(AP, 4/21/17)

2016 Oct 4, British home
secretary Amer Rudd announced new restrictions on foreign students
in an effort to reduce the number of migrants.
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.52)
2016 Oct 4, Three British-born
scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics for discoveries about
strange states of matter that could result in improved materials for
electronics or quantum computers. David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and
Michael Kosterlitz, now affiliated with universities in the United
States, were honored for breakthroughs they made in the 1970s and
'80s.
(AP, 10/4/16)

2016 Oct 17, The
editor-in-chief of Kremlin-funded television network RT said that
all its bank accounts in Britain have been closed down.
(AFP, 10/17/16)

2016 Oct 21, British American
Tobacco offered to buy Reynolds American Inc. in a $47 billion deal
that would create the world's largest publicly traded tobacco
company and attempt to make up for a decline in smoking in the US
and Europe.
(AP, 10/21/16)

2016 Nov 1, Britain's Treasury
Chief Philip Hammond promised that the UK will strike back against
cyberattacks amid fears that state-sponsored hackers jeopardize
society. The Kremlin dismissed as untrue allegations by the head of
Britain's MI5 intelligence agency that Russia is mounting
cyber-attacks and other aggressive measures which pose a growing
threat to Britain.
(AP, 11/1/16)(Reuters, 11/1/16)

2016 Nov 3, The High Court in
London ruled that parliament must approve the start of Britain's
withdrawal from the European Union.
(AFP, 11/3/16)

2016 Nov 6, British PM Theresa
May said she would deliver a full exit from the European Union,
hitting back at critics of her Brexit strategy who have threatened
to try to block the process in parliament.
(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 6, Tesco Bank, the
financial arm of Britainís biggest retailer, detected suspicious
transactions over the last 24 hours on 40,000 current (checking)
accounts. Raiders succeeded in stealing from 9,000 accounts. On Nov
8, Tesco Bank said it had reimbursed all losses to the tune of £2.5m
($3.1m).
(Econ, 11/12/16, p.68)

2016 Nov 9, In England 7 people
were killed, more than 50 others were injured after a tram
overturned in south London.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)(AP, 11/10/16)

2016 Nov 15, Thousands of
British prison officers in England and Wales walked out in protest
at rising levels of violence in jails, prompting the government to
seek a court injunction to force them back to work.
(Reuters, 11/15/16)

2016 Nov 16, The British
Foreign Office said Indian Ocean islanders expelled from the
British-ruled Chagos archipelago during the Cold War to make way for
a U.S. military base will not be given the right to return to
resettle.
(Reuters, 11/16/16)

2016 Nov 17, Britain said it
had ratified the Paris Agreement, the global deal to combat climate
change. The 21-day period for parliamentary scrutiny in Britain
expired with no objections on November 15.
(Reuters, 11/17/16)

2016 Nov 20, Acclaimed Irish
novelist William Trevor (b.1928) died at his adopted English home.
Trevor won the Whitbread Prize three times for ďThe Children of
Dynmouth" (in 1978), ďFools of Fortune (in 1983), and ďFeliciaís
Journey" (in 1994). He was widely regarded as one of the greatest
contemporary writers of short stories in the English language.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Trevor)(SFC, 11/22/16, p.C4)

2016 Nov 25, British chef
Stephen Port (41), convicted two days earlier of murdering three
young men whom he met online, was sentenced to life in prison. Over
a 15-month period Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor
all overdosed on the psychoactive drug GHB. Port then dumped their
bodies in and around a graveyard near his apartment.
(AFP, 11/25/16)

2016 Dec 2, Britainís
Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the maker of Big Ben (1858), announced its
closure. The foundry will close in May 2017, after nearly 450 years
of bell making and 250 years at its present site.
(http://tinyurl.com/jxfxhd7)(Econ, 12/24/16,
p.122)

2016 Dec 6, A British man was
found guilty of providing cash to a key suspect in the deadly
Brussels and Paris bombings in a case that linked England to the
Islamic State group attacks in Europe. Zakaria Boufassil was
convicted of "engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of
terrorism" by providing 3,000 pounds ($3,700) to bombing suspect
Mohamed Abrini at a secret meeting in Birmingham, England.
(AP, 12/6/16)

2016 Dec 7, In Bahrain British
PM Theresa May and leaders from the six-member Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) agreed to counter Iran's "destabilizing activities," a
pledge meant to calm nerves following the nuclear deal with world
powers. The summit aimed to advance plans to turn the (GCC) into a
Gulf Union with tighter defense coordination.
(AP, 12/7/16)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.50)

2016 Dec 7, Amazon completed
its first delivery by drone, in what the global online giant hopes
will become a trend in automated shipments by air. The delivery was
made to a customer near Cambridge, England.
(AFP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 7, British musician
Greg Lake (b.1947) died. He had co-founded both King Crimson and
Emerson, Lake and Palmer. ELP broke up in 1979, reunited in 1991,
later disbanded again and reunited for a 2010 tour.
(AP, 12/8/16)

2016 Dec 8, Britainís
Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) said junk food ads aimed at
children from both print and social media will be banned from next
year.
(AFP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, Her Majestyís
Inspectorate of Constabulary reported 436 accusations of sexual
abuse by police in England and Wales over two years through the end
of March.
(SFC, 12/9/16, p.A5)

2016 Dec 9, Police overseeing
the sex abuse scandal in British soccer said 83 potential suspects
have been identified and linked to 98 clubs. The age range of
potential victims was 7 to 20 years old.
(AP, 12/9/16)

2016 Dec 12, British PM Theresa
May introduced an official definition for anti-Semitism on Monday in
hopes of curbing attacks against Jewish people. The definition
states that "Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which
may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical
manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or
non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish
community institutions and religious facilities."
(AP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, Britain jailed
Mohammed Ali Ahmed (27) and Zakaria Boufassil (26) for up to eight
years for giving money to Brussels and Paris terror attacks suspect
Mohamed Abrini when he visited Britain last year.
(AFP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, British and Greek
authorities said they have dismantled an international ring
suspected of smuggling hundreds of migrants to Britain and other
European countries using falsified travel documents. 24 suspects
were arrested last week in the Athens area, and another nine in
Glasgow, Northampton and Manchester in Britain.
(AP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, A London judge
sentenced Stefano Brizzi, a crystal meth addict, to life in prison
with at least 24 years to serve for killing police officer Gordon
Semple (59) during a bondage sex session and then attempting to cook
and eat his body parts. Semple was last seen on 1 April and his
dissolving body was found in an acid bath.
(AP, 12/12/16)

2016 Dec 14, The Unite union
said thousands of cabin crew working for British Airways have voted
overwhelmingly in favor of strike action in a pay dispute and could
walk out after Dec 21.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, The leader of
Yemen's rebel Huthi government accused Britain of war crimes by
supplying weapons that Saudi-led forces were using to "bomb the
people".
(AFP, 12/14/16)

2016 Dec 15, Britainís
fertility regulator approved controversial techniques allowing
doctors to create babies using DNA from three people. The techniques
were developed to help prevent some children from inheriting
potentially fatal diseases from their mothers.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A6)

2016 Dec 16, The British Home
Office said that National Action, a neo-Nazi organization that
praised the murderer of lawmaker Jo Cox, has become the first
far-right group in Britain to be banned as a terrorist organization.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 16, A London jury
found Ralph Clarke (101) guilty of 21 counts of indecency and
indecent assault on two girls in the 1970s and '80s. The former
truck driver had admitted nine other charges against a boy. On Dec
19 Clarke was sentenced to thirteen years in jail.
(AP, 12/16/16)(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 16, In England an
estimated 600 inmates seized control and launched a destructive
rampage at HMP Birmingham. Ordered was restored the next day.
(AP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 16, German discount
supermarket group Lidl announced plans to create 5,000 new jobs in
London as part of a major investment program in Britain, where it is
enjoying rapid growth.
(AFP, 12/16/16)

2016 Dec 17, BP PLC signed a
$2.22-billion deal restoring its share of an onshore oil block in
Abu Dhabi by agreeing to give the emirate stock in the company worth
2 percent of the oil giant's overall value.
(AP, 12/17/16)

2016 Dec 19, British postal
workers began what could become the longest strike in the Post
Office's 300-year history as part of a wave of industrial action
that is also threatening Christmas travel chaos.
(AFP, 12/19/16)

2016 Dec 20, British-based
Lloyds of London said it would buy MBNA, a credit card firm, for $2
billion.
(Econ, 1/7/17, p.52)

2016 Dec 24, British author
Richard Adams (96), author of Watership Down (1972), died in
Oxfordshire. In 1978 the book was made into a movie.
(SFC, 12/28/16, p.D3)

2016 Dec 26, British gay pop
star George Michael (53) died of apparent heart failure. He had
rocketed to stardom with WHAM! and went on to enjoy a long and
celebrated solo career lined with controversies.
(AP, 12/26/16)

2016 Dec 27, The British
government announced plans to crack down on voter fraud by requiring
voters to show official identification at polling stations,
tightening rules on absentee ballots and preventing political
activists from handling absentee ballots.
(SFC, 12/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 27, Research led by
the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) said the Cheetah, the world's
fastest land animal, is in danger of extinction because it is
running out of space. The study said there are now just 7,100
cheetahs in the world.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)

2016 Dec 28, The British Home
Office said immigration officers have raided nearly 300 nail salons
and arrested 97 people, mostly from Vietnam, for suspected
immigration offences as part of a drive to tackle modern slavery.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Oil company BP
said it has agreed to buy the fuel business of Australian
supermarket chain Woolworths Ltd for $1.3 billion as part of its
efforts to rebuild itself.
(AP, 12/28/16)

2016 Dec 30, Former British pub
owner Allan Williams (86), the first manager of The Beatles, died.
He drove the band on their formative trip to Hamburg in 1960.
(AP, 12/31/16)

2016 Dec 31, In southern
England the RMT union launched a three-day strike on Southern Rail,
which runs commuter services from the south coast into London, as
part of a long-running dispute over plans to downgrade the role of
the train guard.
(AFP, 12/31/16)

2016 David Howell, former Tory
energy secretary, authored ďEmpires in Collision."
(www.gilgamesh-publishing.co.uk/empires-in-collision.html)
2016 Ben Judah authored ďThis
Is London: Life and Death in the World City."
(Econ, 1/30/16, p.77)
2016 Mervyn King, former
governor of the Bank of England (2003-2013) authored ďThe End of
Alchemy: Money, Banking and the Future of the Global Economy."
(Econ, 3/12/16, p.78)
2016 Helen Pearson authored
ďThe Life Project: The Extraordinary Story of Our Ordinary Lives."
Here she has charted the 1946 British cohort along with four other
that followed in 1958, 1970, 1991 and 2000.
(Econ, 4/9/16, p.85)
2016 James Sharpe authored ďA
Fiery and Furious People: A History of Violence in England.
(Econ, 10/1/16, p.79)
2016 Gillian Tindall authored
ďThe Tunnel Through Time: A New Route for an Old London Journey. Her
she covered the story of the Crossrail running east-west through
London and its suburbs.
(Econ, 8/27/16, p.64)
2016 British firms owned
approximately 7% of Australiaís agricultural land.
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.34)
2016 Britainís population stood
at about 65 million and was expected to grow to 77 million by 2050.
(Econ, 4/30/16, p.54)

2017 Jan 2, Britain's
government announced plans to build 17 new towns and villages across
the English countryside in a bid to ease a chronic housing shortage.
(Reuters, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 2, British police shot
and killed Mohammed Yassar Yaqub of Huddersfield (27) during an
operation in which five other people were arrested.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 2, John Berger
(b.1926), influential British art critic and prize-winning author,
died in France. The self-declared revolutionary had controversially
backed the far-left Black Panthers. He won the 1972 Booker Prize for
Fiction for his experimental novel "G.", set in pre-World War I
Europe. His ďWays of Seeing" (1972) spawned a BBC series and ushered
in a political perspective to art criticism.
(AFP, 1/3/17)(SFC, 1/3/17, p.C2)

2017 Jan 9, In England a
24-hour strike by London Underground station staff shut down much of
the cityís subway network.
(SFC, 1/10/17, p.A2)

2017 Jan 10, British Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn told the BBC that "I would like to see some
kind of high-earnings cap" to reduce inequality. He said that it
should kick in at a level "somewhat higher" than his own 138,000
pound ($167,000) annual salary.
(AP, 1/10/17)
2017 Jan 10, UKIP founder Nigel
Farage said Farage said that all differences with 5-Star had been
resolved and that Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement has
backtracked from plans to quit the UKIP grouping in the European
Parliament.
(Reuters, 1/10/17)

2017 Jan 11, Thirteen funds and
five firms managing over 2 trillion pounds ($2.4 trillion) launched
an online tool at the London Stock Exchange called the Transition
Pathway Initiative. It allows asset managers to check what companies
have done to prepare for a low-carbon economy.
(AP, 1/11/17)

2017 Jan 13, Lord Snowdon
(b.1930), born as Antony Armstrong-Jones, the society photographer
and filmmaker who married Britain's Princess Margaret and continued
to mix in royal circles even after their divorce, died.
(AP, 1/13/17)

2017 Jan 14, Unilever, a
British-based consumer goods maker, said all of its plastic
packaging would be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by
2025.
(Reuters, 1/14/17)

2017 Jan 15, Prince Charles,
long a critic of man-made climate change, published the book
"Climate Change" with Tony Juniper, a former Friends of the Earth
director, and Emily A, a Cambridge University climate scientist.
(AP, 1/15/17)

2017 Jan 16, British company
Rolls Royce, in a deal with American, British and Brazilian
regulators, agreed to pay £671 million to settle allegations that it
had in the past secured sales with bribery.
(Econ, 1/21/17, p.54)

2017 Jan 17, Britain will quit
the European Union's single market when it exits the bloc, PM
Theresa May said, in a decisive speech that quashed speculation she
would seek a compromise deal to stay inside the world's biggest
trading bloc.
(Reuters, 1/17/17)
2017 Jan 17, British American
Tobacco announced that will take over Reynolds American Inc. for $49
billion to create the world's largest publicly traded tobacco
company. It would seek to capitalize on growing demand for
electronic cigarettes in the US and traditional ones in developing
countries. BAT already owned 42% of Reynolds.
(AP, 1/17/17)(Econ, 1/21/17, p.51)

2017 Jan 18, The first direct
freight train service from China to Britain arrived in London,
another leg in Beijing's plans for closer trade ties with Europe
along a modern-day Silk Road.
(AP, 1/18/17)
2017 Jan 18, A court in
southwest France gave the go-ahead for the extradition of Stephen
Carruthers (43), a suspected pedophile arrested on Jan 8, who is one
of Britain's most wanted fugitives.
(AFP, 1/18/17)

2017 Jan 19, At Davos,
Switzerland, PM Theresa May unveiled her vision for Britain after
Brexit, describing its future role as a defender of free trade and
globalization in a speech intended to ease concerns among the global
business elite.
(Reuters, 1/19/17)

2017 Jan 24, The UK Supreme
Court ruled that PM Theresa May must give parliament a vote before
she can formally start Britain's exit from the European Union,
giving lawmakers who oppose her Brexit plans a shot at amending
them.
(Reuters, 1/24/17)

2017 Jan 25, Britainís PM
Theresa May announced that the government would publish a white
paper setting out its approach to Brexit.
(Econ, 1/28/17, p.49)

2017 Jan 26, Britainís
Conservative government introduced a long-awaited bill to start the
country's exit from the European Union and gave the House of Commons
less than two weeks to consider it.
(AP, 1/26/17)
2017 Jan 26, Britainís High
Court ruled that Royal Dutch Shell cannot be sued in London over oil
spills in Nigeria, in a setback to attempts to hold British
multinationals liable at home for their subsidiaries' actions
abroad. The court also said the claimants should be able to use
Nigerian courts.
(Reuters, 1/26/17)
2017 Jan 26, German geologist
Kay Holtzmann, contracted by the Dutch-British multinational Royal
Dutch Shell's Nigeria subsidiary, wrote a letter to the Bodo
Mediation Initiative saying the company "fiercely opposed"
environmental testing and is concealing data showing thousands of
Nigerians are exposed to health hazards from a stalled cleanup of
the worst oil spills in the West African nation's history.
(AP, 3/24/17)

2017 Jan 27, Britain's biggest
retailer Tesco agreed to buy wholesaler Booker for ¬£3.7 billion in
a surprise play to become the nation's top food business, slash
costs and take on German-owned discounters.
(AFP, 1/27/17)
2017 Jan 27, Oscar-nominated
British actor John Hurt (77), known for his roles in "Elephant Man"
and "Harry Potter", died in Norfolk after a battle with pancreatic
cancer.
(AFP, 1/28/17)(SSFC, 1/29/17, p.A6)
2017 Jan 27, President Donald
Trump made his debut as a statesman, welcoming British PM Theresa
May as the first foreign leader to visit his White House. In their
news conference Trump said that his defense secretaryís opposition
to torture will override his own belief that enhanced interrogation
does work.
(AFP, 1/27/17)(SFC, 1/28/17, p.A6)

2017 Jan 28, In Turkey British
PM Theresa May signed a $125 million defense equipment deal with
Turkey and promised to push for more trade between the NATO allies,
but cautioned Ankara on human rights following last year's failed
coup.
(Reuters, 1/28/17)
2017 Jan 28, PM Theresa May
said Britain did not agree with US President Donald Trump's curbs on
immigration after coming under criticism from lawmakers in her own
party for not condemning his executive order when initially
questioned.
(Reuters, 1/29/17)

2017 Jan 31, Britain passed a
law that posthumously pardoned thousands of men convicted under
now-abolished anti-homosexuality laws, and many more still alive can
now apply to have their criminal convictions wiped out.
(AP, 1/31/17)

2017 Feb 1, British MPs voted
498 to 114 to honor the Brexit referendum and invoke Article 50. The
Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats opposed the bill.
(Econ, 2/4/17, p.49)
2017 Feb 1, Guyana said it has
secured nearly $80 million from Britain to pave part of a 350-mile
(560-km) jungle highway that is expected to increase trade with
Brazil.
(AP, 2/1/17)

2017 Feb 2, British PM Theresa
May's government published its blueprint for Brexit after winning a
first parliamentary vote on a bill that would empower her to start
pulling Britain out of the EU.
(AFP, 2/2/17)

2017 Feb 4, In Britain several
thousand people demonstrated outside the US embassy in London
against President Donald Trump and his temporary ban on refugees and
nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the
United States. Thousands marched in London demanding that the
British government withdraw its invitation to Trump for a state
visit.
(Reuters, 2/4/17)(SSFC, 2/5/17, p.A4)

2017 Feb 6, Queen Elizabeth II,
the world's longest reigning sovereign, set a new record as the
first British monarch to reach her sapphire jubilee, with 65 years
on the throne.
(AFP, 2/6/17)

2017 Feb 7, Brexit Minister
David Jones told the House of Commons that Parliament would get to
approve the deal "before it is concluded" and before the European
Parliament votes on it.
(AP, 2/7/17)

2017 Feb 8, A majority of
British MPs authorized the government to begin withdrawal from the
EU by triggering Article 50 of the EU Treaty. The cost of Brexit was
estimated at Ä40bn to Ä60bn.
(Econ, 2/11/17, p.46)

2017 Feb 9, A British
immigration tribunal upheld a government decision to strip four men
of citizenship. They had been convicted of grooming girls for sex in
a case that fueled racial tensions. They now faced deportation to
Pakistan.
(AP, 2/9/17)

2017 Feb 10, British police
said 794 pounds (360 kg) of cocaine with a street value of up to 50
million pounds ($62 million) have washed up on beaches in eastern
England.
(AP, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 10, US investment firm
Blackstone said it is buying London-based Aon's technology-enabled
benefits and human resources assets in a deal valued at up to $4.8
billion.
(AP, 2/10/17)

2017 Feb 11, London's Sotheby's
auction house opened the "Erotica: Passion & Desire" show of
over 150 titillating items to explore the varied attitudes to nudity
and sex across eras and continents ahead of an auction for the next
week.
(AFP, 2/10/17)

2017 Feb 15, Gay rights
campaigners protested outside the Church of England's General Synod
in London as Anglican bishops from around the world prepared to vote
on a report ruling out accepting gay marriage.
(AFP, 2/15/17)

2017 Feb 17, Mayor Sadiq Khan
said motorists in London who own old polluting vehicles are to be
hit with a new charge from October, two days after the EU ordered
Britain to cut air pollution.
(AFP, 2/17/17)

2017 Feb 22, The British
government announced that Cressida Dick (56) is to be commissioner
of the Metropolitan Police, making her the first woman to serve as
Britain's most senior police officer.
(AFP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, Ian Stewart, the
partner of British children's author Helen Bailey, was convicted of
killing her and dumping her body in a cesspool in a financially
motivated murder. The body of Bailey (51) was found last July in a
cesspool under the garage of the home she shared with Stewart. The
next day Stewart was sentenced to at least 34 years in prison.
(AP, 2/22/17)(AP, 2/23/17)
2017 Feb 22, A British national
was arrested at a London airport on suspicion of staging a
cyber-attack on Deutsche Telekom last November that knocked around a
million German households offline.
(AFP, 2/23/17)

2017 Mar 5, Britain agreed to
arrange 10 billion pounds ($12.3 billion) in loans to finance
infrastructure projects in Iraq over a 10 year period, in a program
that would only benefit British companies.
(Reuters, 3/5/17)

2017 Mar 7, British PM Theresa
May sacked Michael Heseltine (83), a senior figure in her
Conservative Party, from various advisory roles for rebelling
against the government in a Brexit vote in the House of Lords.
(AFP, 3/8/17)

2017 Mar 8, Britainís
Chancellor Philip Hammond in his budget announced an increase in tax
for the self-employed, who self-employed make up around 15% of the
UKís workers.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.56)
2017 Mar 8, Britain's BBC
announced it is ending its shortwave transmissions from Thailand
after 20 years of operation because it failed to reach agreement
with Thailand's military government on a renewal of its operating
permit.
(AP, 3/8/17)

2017 Mar 13, Scottish First
Minister Nicola Sturgeon demanded a new independence referendum in
late 2018 or early 2019, once the terms of Britain's exit from the
European Union have become clearer. Britainís PM Theresa May chided
Sturgeon for demanding an independence referendum, saying the
Scottish National Party (SNP) had "tunnel vision" on breaking away
from the United Kingdom.
(Reuters, 3/13/17)

2017 Mar 16, British PM Theresa
May rejected a call for a referendum on Scottish independence before
Britain leaves the European Union ó a move condemned as a
"democratic outrage" by Scotland's nationalist leader.
(AP, 3/16/17)
2017 Mar 16, A bill authorizing
Britain to start its exit from the EU received royal assent and
became law.
(SFC, 3/17/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 16, Scientists at
Britain's Newcastle University received a license to create babies
using DNA from three people to prevent women from passing on
potentially fatal genetic diseases to their children ó the first
time such approval has been granted.
(AP, 3/16/17)

2017 Mar 17, Former British
Treasury chief George Osborne was appointed editor of the Evening
Standard newspaper, touchi